Within the Straws I Grasp
by Melkor44
Summary: A slightly older Naruto changes the fates of many in the ninja world. Tayuya's survival ensures that someone will find her, and that she'll be around to keep him in check. As the cycle of the ages shifts, can they survive its brutal tests? When you grasp at straws, can you find the needle in the hay? There's only one way to find out. (Deviations from canon; begins at the VOTE.)
1. Broken Influence

**...it's been a long, _long_ time, Naruto fandom. Almost two years since I gave up writing _Reign In Blood_ , although it feels like that was a lifetime ago. Still love that phrase.**

 **A lot happened in my absence. The series ended, Naruto got with Hinata at the end, they even had a pair of kids. Not even gonna front, it would have been cool as fuck if Boruto had the Byakugan.**

 **Anyway, though, I came back now because I'm at a bit of a standstill with some other fics, although you can feel free to check out my NGE one, _As Long as the Raven Flies_. I'm a little prouder of that one than most. I _also_ came back because, hell, I miss my little corner office writing for the ships that get no love. Naruto/Yugito was, and is, my favorite, but I've already read just about everything that's good in that archive a hundred times over. So this one will be my second Naruto/Tayuya fic, the last one having been _Violence Fetish_ published back when early man still hunted woolly mammoths. I have _no_ idea where I'm going with this, or how long it will take. If I fuck up spelling someone's name, or a jutsu, or something like that, just PM me or say it in a review, and I'll go back to edit it.**

 **All I know is that the canon Naruto timeline is fucked all to hell. Please consider:**

 **1\. The Third War ended when Itachi was alive, just a couple years later the Kyuubi attack comes.**

 **2\. Jiraiya was 37 when Naruto was born, as he turned 50 when they were searching for Tsunade (when Naruto was 13) which means that Minato/Kushina couldn't have been much older than 20 when they died. That means Minato had to be ~18 years old or younger, leading a group of 13-year-olds in a war zone. Ergo, Uzushiogakure had been gone for 30-ish years by the time Naruto graduated, as it was still standing when Kushina was sent there.**

 **3\. Anko's age being relatively close to Iruka's/Kakashi's ages, not that I've bothered to actually look any of them up, Orochimaru defected _after the Kyuubi attack._ Do you know how bullshit that is? And/or, how pathetic that makes Jiraiya for chasing after a man who's almost 40 that decided to run away from home? I find _that_ image fucking hilarious. Jiraiya's a badass, he's strong as fuck, but dude...that's a little sad.**

 **Also, this has nothing to do with the timeline, but it's always confused me: it's stated fairly immediately in canon that Naruto failed the graduation exam twice. If canon is to be believed, that means Naruto tried twice to graduate early, and that's why he's the same age as the rest of his graduating class. Personally, I prefer the idea that Kishimoto made a continuity error and that Naruto should actually be two years older than his graduating class, making him 15 and 18 for pre- and post-Shippuden, respectively.**

 **I'm gonna start writing before I get sidetracked...again.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

 **Edit (August 15th, 2018): Hey guys! I'm gonna be going back through WTSIG and fixing some mistakes/adding more scenes. I'll also be adding a final post-epilogue chapter that'll go over the mythos I developed during the year and a half that I wrote this story.**

* * *

"Oh, fuck, my head." Tayuya came to, having been knocked unconscious earlier. Her initial grogginess wore off in seconds, and then pain set in. "Fuck, my _legs!_ "

She was at an angle, propped up by some of the trees in this decapitated forest, and her legs felt like they were on fire...for good reason: another tree, thicker than she was tall, had landed across her thighs, and she was trapped.

"If that fuckin' fatass Jirobo was here...hell, if any of the others were here, they'd be able to get me out. Hell, we probably succeeded, so Orochimaru would let me off the hook...maybe." She griped to herself.

While she didn't enjoy that 'maybe,' it was the best hope that she had to go on. She was one of his elite guards, and that was worth something...though their status as 'elite' didn't mean much when Orochimaru's continued experiments produced stronger mutations. Given how young those subjects were, it was likely that the Sound Four would outlive their usefulness. Unfortunately for Orochimaru, though, he hadn't been able to ensure that those mutated children were able to stay sane. For better or worse, with their basic curse seals, she and the others were the most capable soldiers on Orochimaru's side. Kabuto was the only exception to that rule.

Thinking of that man sent shivers down her spine. He was a brilliant medic, but a little _too_ brilliant. Kabuto was Orochimaru's right-hand-man and apprentice. Kimimaro before his illness, and Sasuke now...they were just spare bodies to him, vessels that he could use to attain his goals. He hadn't deigned to share that information with Tayuya, or any of the other members of the Sound Four. Not that she was complaining; that would have been another piece of information that a captor could torture out of her.

Of course, at this point, capture was looking like her best option. Orochimaru was known for tying up loose ends in a very painful way, and Konoha had comfortable prisons...as far as prisons went. Better than Orochimaru's stone walls and steel bars, no doubt. Supposedly, they were like staying in a shitty one-star motel, minus the roaches. Then again, the man who'd told her that wasn't exactly the most mentally put-together in the world...

"Well, the others are probably dead. Even Kimimaro's running on borrowed time."

On the one hand, the pain in her legs was _excruciating._ On the other hand, the fact that she could still feel them meant that they were still repairable. Time was working against her, and she knew that.

An explosion in the distance caught her attention, and as a blur passed by to her right, she shouted for help.

"What have we here?" A giant, white-haired man appeared in her vision. He had to be at least six feet tall, and looked like he could withstand a mountain collapsing on him. "You're working for my old teammate, huh? Well...it'd leave a really bad taste in my mouth to just leave you here to die. Why don't you come with me, I know someone who'll be able to fix those legs of yours. Then, you and I can have a nice, long talk."

He placed one hand toward the bottom of the log, casually flipping it to stand on one end.

"How the _fuck_ did you-"

"Anything is possible when you're the great Jiraiya!" He laughed. "Now, will you come with me or not? I won't force you, but I know how Orochimaru operates. I've had enough spies die to learn what happens when someone is in your position."

The decision didn't take long.

"I'm coming..." She huffed, holding out an arm for the Sannin to grab.

"Excellent!" He picked her up, carrying her on his back, and resumed traveling. "Now, to go pick up that bumbling student of mine and his wayward friend...if we can."

* * *

Lightning had burnt Naruto's jacket to a crisp, blood running down his chest from a hole on either side. Shrugging off the destroyed vestment that Konoha's populace had come to know as the infamous _Orange Nightmare_ , his upper body was on display for the world to see.

"That's a lot of scars, Naruto. Were those from Haku?" Sasuke, his best friend and current enemy, momentarily stopped their fight in wonder. What the hell had happened to Naruto?

His torso was riddled with jagged lines, deep gouges, and more than a few imprints that looked like acid or burn scars. Before Sasuke's eyes, the two craters he'd put in Naruto's chest stopped bleeding and began to heal over.

"No...these were from the villagers. They're old, they're faded, but...they're from before I came to the Academy. Normally, I put a physical _henge_ on when I'm going to show skin to the world...makes it impossible to feel them. Hadn't thought I'd be doing it today, though, and I'd rather save the chakra."

"They...they did that to you? And you never fought back? What the hell is _wrong_ with you?"

"They probably would have killed me if they thought it could be done, but I heal a little too fast for them to keep up...and I'll be honest, I deserved it. My legs are a lot worse off, because there's no vital organs."

"So...wait. You were subject to mob judgement, you got scarred beyond your ability to heal yourself, and _you're_ trying to convince _me_ to come back to Konoha?"

"Well, when you put it like that, it does make you sound kind of silly. Might just be the two years I have on you, though. I didn't get held back twice to get outsmarted by someone younger than me! Except Shikamaru, that dude's got like...sixteen eggs in his dozen. Fuckin' bizarre. At least I'm honest about being short one or two!"

"Yeah, yeah, mister super-duper senior. You're the only one that's ever happened to, you know that?"

"...that makes me feel bad, Sasuke. At least when we were punching each other you weren't insulting me. Come back home with me, _please?_ "

"You know why I can't, Naruto! No amount of pity for you is going to make me! I have to kill my brother, I have to avenge my clan! Killing the person most important to me is how to evolve the Sharingan into its Mangekyou form, and that's...you."

"Touching as that is, you're lying. Itachi is more important to you than I am, or else you wouldn't still be going on this quest for vengeance. If I mattered more, if Sakura or Kakashi mattered more, if anyone in Konoha mattered more, then it would have been enough for you to give up! It would have been enough for you to stay with us! And if I really am that important, if _any_ of us are that important, then you're not the one in control of your actions! That damn seal is!"

That announcement hit Sasuke like a ton of bricks; for someone who was supposed to be an idiot, stupid enough to have failed to graduate from what amounted to civilian middle school _twice_ , it made an unfortunate amount of sense. Hate and anger were just as much about passion as romance and friendship, which meant either his hate for Itachi outweighed the strength of his brotherhood with Naruto, or Orochimaru's seal was making him do something that he would otherwise never have done.

"Choose who you care about more, Sasuke. Itachi, or the village. If you turn around and walk away right now, you'll be just like him. If you come back with me, it all gets blown off as a kidnapping, only Team Seven will know the truth unless Sakura decides to open her mouth. You don't have to become Itachi to beat him!"

"...fine." Sasuke finally said. "But in exchange, you're going to help me train to kill him."

"Whatever you say, pal."

* * *

"Naruto! Sasuke!"

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto said.

"I see you were successful, Naruto...and you too, Sasuke, for resisting the seal."

"Kakashi..." A newcomer said. It was Jiraiya, carrying a girl on his back. "...are you telling me that you willingly left a curse seal rampant, when it has the ability to manipulate a person's thoughts, because you wanted to train Sasuke without my interference?" His tone was dark. "I won't deny that I'm glad it gave me the freedom to teach Naruto, but that's still a very severe lapse in judgement."

"I didn't know the full extent of its power over Sasuke...it was an honest mistake, Jiraiya. You know me better than to insinuate I would sabotage the growth of my student."

"She's a member of the Sound Four." Naruto pointed to the girl on Jiraiya's back, interrupting the older ninja. "She fought Shikamaru."

"Her name is Kitamon no Tayuya." Sasuke added. "One of Orochimaru's personal guards. I'm guessing the other three are dead?"

"Yeah. Not in ways I want to describe, either." Jiraiya confirmed. "Now...we should get out of here, and I'm going to take a look at those seals when we get back to Konoha. Yours and hers."

There was no room for argument, and the four men took off running.

* * *

"...all of them dead, and no sign of Sasuke?"

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama. Unfortunately, it seems that Naruto was able to overpower the seal by leveraging his friendship with Sasuke."

"I see. Well, then...failure is failure, I suppose, but more is learned from failure than success." Orochimaru grimaced, despite those hopeful words. In the main chamber of his torch-lit base, he sat upon the Basilisk Throne and thought.

The _Byahebi_ 's hands were bridged in front of him, elbows resting on the arms of his chair.

"Now I know that I need to modify the seals further in the future...disobedience is a terrible crime, especially to refuse the strength of one of the Sannin. It's almost like he was ungrateful for the gift I showed him!"

A grass snake coiled around his arm, sliding around the appendage in order to keep the bandages on tightly.

"Well, let's move on. There's no use in dwelling over what could have been, after all."

The White Snake was coiled, and waiting to strike again.

* * *

"Chunin, Uzumaki Naruto and Nara Shikamaru. Genin, Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuuga Neji, Akimichi Chouji. Congratulations." The Godaime Hokage, Tsunade, said, addressing most of the people in the room. "Thanks to you, not only have Orochimaru's personal guard been dealt with, but you kept Sasuke Uchiha from being kidnapped by Otogakure. The village owes you a debt it can't repay. All I can offer are standard mission rewards, and my own personal thanks."

"A mission is a mission. You don't owe us anything, obaa-chan." Naruto grinned cheekily, deftly ducking the book that she threw at him. "Oh, come on, I was respectful! Mostly!"

"Naruto..." Shikamaru drawled, his ponytail waving as he shook his head. "You never learn, do you?"

"Nah. You're the smart one, Shika. I just hit stuff."

"And _get_ hit by stuff, if those marks are any indication. The hell happened to you?" Kiba said, edging closer. "Did you cross some ronin trying to practice his Thousand Cuts technique?"

"...I'd rather not talk about it. Let's get back to the topic at hand."

"Jiraiya is dealing with Sasuke and the retrieved Oto kunoichi." Tsunade said, her voice calm enough to disguise the rage she felt at the realization of what had happened to Naruto in his childhood.

She and Jiraiya never should have left the boy alone in Konoha. Her sensei had meant well, but Hiruzen Sarutobi had held the position of Hokage before her; he was never going to be there, at any specific time, for one child in a village of thousands, even if most of them weren't shinobi clans. Hell, having a child around would have made either one of them ten times more stable than they had been...but there was no point in thinking about the past.

"Dismissed, except for Naruto."

The younger ninja, and Kakashi, left the room quickly.

"Why me?"

"You and I are going to go see Jiraiya and that girl, Tayuya. Follow me."

* * *

The hospital room was secluded, almost elusive, and for good reason. There was a seven-layered Genjutsu shrouding the route, which was one of Naruto's weakest abilities. Once they were inside the room, however, the illusion dissipated and full consciousness returned to his mind.

"Are you healed?" Tsunade asked the bedridden redhead.

"Yeah." Tayuya kept her eyes closed. "Thanks."

"It's not an issue." The blonde woman said. "However, that does mean that you won't be able to stay in the hospital after tomorrow morning's discharge comes through. What are you going to do?"

"That's my question. By all rights, I should be dead. To Orochimaru, I probably _am_ dead. If I go back there, it'll just mean torture until I'm too fuckin' used to the pain to scream anymore...Kabuto is good at making people scream. And you...I'm expecting an interrogation session, and a goddamn execution. That's what anyone else would do to an enemy they'd captured. Shit, it's what I would do to me."

"You swear a lot, you know that?" Naruto observed

"Shut it, piss-for-brains. It's a goddamn defense mechanism." Tayuya bit back.

"Hey, just because my hair is yellow-"

"Yellow as piss, you nimrod." The redhead cut Naruto off as she insulted him.

Tsunade laughed.

"Obaa-chan?" Naruto asked.

"She's just saying all the things I can't bring myself to, since I'm Hokage. I like her." The platinum-blonde smirked.

It took Tayuya very little time to piece the puzzle together. "Tsunade? Sannin no Tsunade, the Hokage?"

"Yeah, she's-"

"You disrespect her like that, piss-brain? Fuckin' shit, you're dumber than I thought!"

"Hey!"

"Well, I have an idea now." Tsunade spoke up, in a tone Naruto knew as the 'I'm not going to like what she says' voice. "As a show of good faith, I'm willing to let you live freely in the village; the only catch is that you have to live under the supervision of one of my shinobi."

Naruto had a distinct fear of the words that he knew would follow. In the back of his mind, he could hear a dark laugh rattling amid sewage. Stupid fox, mocking him from a place he couldn't fight it!

"Naruto is unquestionably loyal, and if he tries anything perverted then you have my full permission to act without discretion. No strings. That having been said, you won't be allowed to go anywhere without him shadowing you, and you'll have to follow him wherever he goes. That all aside, I'm enjoying the way you say how I feel. By all means, please continue."

"Obaa-chan...please tell me I'm getting paid for this."

"Oh, hell no." The Hokage was laughing as she walked out of the room. "You're serving your village. Is my gratitude not payment enough?"

The door closed, Naruto still looking at it with one eyebrow twitching.

"She seems nice. A whole lot fuckin' nicer than Orochimaru."

"He's...that bad?"

"Most of us serve him, or served, out of fear. You don't last long in Oto if you start thinking you're strong. Once you do, he starts using you for experiments...and I'm not gonna say another goddamn word about it, piss-for-brains."

"Can you call me anything else?"

"Okay, ass-face."

"...I guess I really was asking for it, huh?"

"I wasn't gonna let that door close on me."

"How come you haven't opened your eyes?"

"It's hard to sleep, so I was just trying to rest. There's still a lot of phantom pain in my legs. Besides, they told me not to ask about the scars. I figure that's easier if I just don't look at you."

"Well, Hokage's order was that we'll be...living together...and you can't exactly do that blind. May as well get it over with."

The look on her face, immediately, was one of horror and pity.

"Sasuke put those two holes in your chest, huh?"

"Tore through a lung. My chakra is strong enough that it can heal me in seconds...but it's not medical chakra. every injury I receive comes with a reminder to do better next time...but look at me, I never seem to learn." Better to leave out the nine-tailed denizen inside of his seal-bearing gut, he reasoned. There was no reason to give that information out so freely.

Not that it would change the fact that most of those scars were brought on by the aforementioned nine-tailed demon, though one or two were self-inflicted.

"You really do have piss for brains, huh?"

"Says the one who had a forest dropped on her."

"Not my fault, that bitch from Suna took out the whole thing in one goddamn attack. That was bullshit."

"Nah, you were just outdone. Her younger brother is even stronger, though...be glad you didn't fight him. He would have made sure you were dead."

"The Ichibi Jinchuriki? I heard he turned Kimimaro into a statue inside of his own little bone forest."

"Yeah, Gaara's strong. I kicked his ass a while back, though."

"Takes a demon to beat a demon, huh?"

"How do you-"

"Oh, please." Tayuya scoffed. "First off, your seal was still active when I saw you after you'd stopped fighting. Second, we all got briefed on potential fights that we might have to engage in. You were first on the list. Had that fuckin' status, 'Kyuubi Jinchuriki,' written in big, bold, red letters. Made the others want to take you out, made me want to let them kill themselves trying."

"Eh, that's fair." He couldn't refute the logic. Jinchuriki were known for being absurdly strong, albeit that most of them had a certain niche where they were most powerful. The Ichibi was strongest in the desert, the Nibi was at a disadvantage in watery areas, and so on. The Kyuubi, however, was a jack of all trades in that regard. While it might lose to the other Biju in the terrain where they were strongest, the Kyuubi had no true weaknesses, and was never at a disadvantage. As the Kyuubi Jinchuriki, he was somewhat representative of the Kyuubi's strength, so it could be argued that anyone able to defeat him would be able to defeat any other Jinchuriki.

It would probably make life annoying later down the road, but that future hadn't arrived yet, so there was no point in waiting around for it.

"Do you know my name, too?" He asked her.

"Uzumaki Naruto."

Those two words, his name, said without any malice in them. It didn't matter to her, apparently, that he was one 'special fuckin' snowflake,' as she would probably say. That was the nicest thing that anybody who didn't have to endure his presence had said, even with all the insults she'd given him.

He didn't have to think hard in order to know that was a pathetic thing to be happy over.

"...I tell you what, Tayuya. I'll stay the night here, make sure that you actually manage to rest. No funny business, I promise, no matter how funny a guy I am."

"Whatever you say, piss-brain."

The following silence was peaceful, at least, and Tayuya was snoring within twenty minutes.


	2. Living Arrangement, Jiraiya's Melancholy

**I won't even lie, the immediate support that the few of you gave when I put out that first chapter last night...that was _awesome_. Like, I didn't expect an outpouring of support at all, much less that quickly. Thanks, truly.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. Hanmac: She's healed completely, though she's suffering nerve damage and can't feel the entirety of either leg. Sucks to have your legs crushed, eh?**

 **2\. Winter Arctica: _Naruto_ 's timeline is a goddamn nightmare. I disregarded it for a long time because it didn't make any sense, but honest to god...and yeah, I (along with most people, I think) hate Naruto's grandstanding and complaining from early in the series. Sasuke, on the other hand, is one of my favorite characters, and I honestly feel like mid- and late-series really did him dirty.**

 **3\. OneLunchMan: Thanks for the compliment! I've been developing my style for years now. Look back at some of my earlier stories and you'll see what I mean; while I'm not as bad as a lot of beginners on this site were, because I was writing before I joined, you can see a _huge_ leap in progress from _Shinigami Kitsune_ to this story, or _As Long as the Raven Flies_. I do my best to provide quality, though I know my shortcomings with the craft.**

 **4\. draven32: I'm not going to lie, it's very ironic that you said that. Imagery, and the description therein, is probably the thing I consider myself best at. One of the reasons I use a large amount of dialogue is because the characters' spoken words are supposed to imply how they feel, as well as what they think. It's more fun for me than writing it out and running out of descriptive words.**

 **This may come off rude, but it's not the job of the author to give a description for everything a character does. It's important when you're writing a fight, but in dialogue, the reader should generally be able to imply things like tone or sarcasm. This isn't an, "I'll write my story how I goddamn please," it's more of an, "I'm fully aware of what I'm doing, and that some readers may not be able to pick up on more subtle nuances."**

 **...**

 **I'll try to keep my ANs short from now on, disregarding review responses. That 600-ish one last chapter was a bit outlandish for me. Now, time to invent what happens next, and as always:**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"This is where you live." She couldn't believe what she was looking at. "You, as an active-duty ninja with a bigass paycheck every time you complete a mission, live in the slums in a fuckin'...what is this, a whorehouse?"

"Poor manners. If you believe the owner, not that I trust a word she says beyond 'your rent is due next week,' then this is what you'd refer to as a 'gentleman's club.'"

"Gentle, my ass. I know the kind of guys who show up to these places."

"Yeah, that's why she wanted a ninja living on the third floor. First floor is the business floor and her office, second floor is living quarters for the girls whenever they need it, third floor is my room. Lady who runs it didn't give a shit who I was, all she wanted to know was whether I could stop fights or get rid of the more unruly customers without damaging the building. It helped her decision that I offered to repair the building and pay the girls for lost wages out of pocket in the event that I ever did manage to put a hole or twelve in there."

"Really, piss-brain? That's...that's really fuckin' nice of you. Who the fuck are you, a saint?"

"No." He said. "I'm just an orphan who knows a little too well what it's like to not know where you'll be able to sleep tomorrow night, or where your food will come from. Most of those scars you saw weren't done to me by ninja." With that, they were at the door, and Naruto swung it open.

It was before business hours, but the women inside were setting up for later tonight. That all changed when they saw him, however.

"Naru-chan!" One particularly buxom woman nearly squealed, burying him in her cleavage and spinning him.

"No fair, Chichi, you'll kill him before the rest of us can say hi!"

The blond, who was turning blue in the face from lack of oxygen, managed to extricate himself.

"Hey, did I tell you? Mission success!" He exclaimed with pride. "I managed to drag that stupid kid's ass right back to the village!"

"Naruto...aren't you a self-proclaimed 'stupid kid,' too?" One of the other women asked him, laughing.

"Yeah, but I'm older, so he's dumber by virtue of age!"

Tayuya watched the scene unfold, comically, as Naruto seemed to put on a show that was completely different from the mostly-serious persona she'd seen so far.

"Who's the girl, Naruto?" One of them said, pointing back towards Tayuya.

"She's gonna be living with me!" He said, clearly not having thought through the consequences.

"Did you hear that, girls?" An older woman walked out from the back of the building, holding an old leather-bound book in one hand. This was the business' owner. "Our little fishcake has a girlfriend, time to give up on making him yours!"

"She is not!"

"I am not!" Their dual proclamation was simultaneous, coming amid soft gasps of excitement and mock disappointment.

"Not helping your case, little fish." The owner said. "If you didn't want her to be seen, you should have just gone to the top floor. I know you can jump that high, I've seen you do it."

"Yeah, that's because there's something you need to know. Technically, the fact that she's staying with me is a really big secret...so if anyone comes looking for her, or someone who looks like her, then she's not here, okay? I'm sorry for the trouble!"

"Don't worry, Naru-chan! Chichi okaa-san will take care of your secret!" The other brothel-workers agreed after her.

He smiled politely. "Thanks! Now, Tayuya-chan, come with me!"

He grabbed her hand and pulled, the redhead stumbling as she followed along.

"Goddamn, piss-for-brains, my legs _just_ healed! Do you want me back in the hospital again?"

The women all watched with smiles on their faces; they knew it would do the boy a world of good to keep more company, even if the only company to be found looked like she was the one person on earth who was louder than him.

"Think he'll be the same way once she manages to worm her way into his pants?"

"That's rude, Kasumi...worried about how she might be getting special treatment now? Jealous, even?"

"Sh-sh-shut up!"

* * *

"Wow, this is pretty big."

"Yeah, it's a lot nicer than some other places I've lived. Kitchen's on the left, bathroom to the right, bedroom is straight back and has another bathroom attached."

"Why is there a door coming out of the wall, though?"

"Oh, that? Don't worry. It's a foot thick, made of chakra-proof metal, and it only unlocks from the inside. It's so I can get in without always having to go up the stairs. Wall-walking is pretty easy once you've gotten the hang of it."

That was good enough, Tayuya told herself. No possibility of attack meant that safety was relatively assured. Not paying much attention to her surroundings, she began to walk toward the bedroom.

"You hungry?" He offered, walking over to the fridge. When no response was given, he turned around and saw her go into his bedroom.

Following after her, he watched her flop down on the bed.

"Why are you so goddamn nice?" She asked, shocking him a little bit. "You should hate this whole fuckin' village. You should hate _me_. Why the hell don't you?"

"I'd rather see the good in people."

He laid down next to her on the bed, looking up at his ceiling. Clean, not leaking, no moldy patches. It was nice.

"I've been hurt a lot, but I'm a reaction, not an action. The people who gave me these scars weren't thinking clearly, they were blinded by grief. I don't like what it did to me, but I forgave them a long time ago. When the orphanage kicked me out, the Sandaime tried to find reasoning to get the man in charge kicked out based on bias against me, but every orphanage in this village was overflowing after the Kyuubi attacked. They really just didn't have enough room. Besides, having that damn fox sealed off inside me has its advantages.

"I can miss five meals before I really get hungry, and my body temperature stays the same no matter what climate I'm in. It also overloads my chakra system to hell, so the only techniques I'm able to control well are the ones that expend enough chakra to exhaust most normal ninja's reserves. Chakra's more dense, too, which makes all my attacks stronger."

"You're too good, piss-brain. There's a line between being kind and letting other people take advantage of you. You're so far past that line, you looped back around just to shove it up your ass."

Naruto did his best not to let the swearing bother him.

"So what do you want to do?"

"I don't know, shithead. You're technically my prison guard, gilded as this jail may be. You're in charge."

"I'm no good at being in charge, though. Both my teachers say I'm too indecisive, and hot-headed."

"That's bullshit, you can't be both of those."

"Just watch me for however long we're stuck like this, then. You'll get it."

"...fuck, I'm hungry."

"I've got some leftovers in the fridge, I was trying to ask if you wanted them before you came in here."

"Well, fuck, didn't hear you. That was nice of you, piss-brain. Still, I wanted to see how you'd act when I did this."

"What, lay down in a bed?" He looked over to her.

"Yeah. We're gonna be sharing it, so I figured I should see how you'd react to me being in it."

"We're gonna do what now?"

"It's your fuckin' room, you're not sleeping on a couch or the floor. I ain't willing to either, so you're just gonna have to suck it up, because we're either gonna be sharing it like this..." Without warning, she rolled on top of him, hands on either side of his head and one of her legs between his. "...or like _this._ Your choice."

His hand moved up to her shoulder, and with a flick of his wrist she was facing up at the ceiling, laying beside him again.

"You're nuts, piss-brain, you know that?"

"Oh, you have no idea." He laughed. "Give me a minute, I'll go heat up some food. Come out when you're ready."

* * *

The meal was simple, just chicken and vegetables with rice. Still, for someone who was used to poorly-flavored gruel or meals that had most of the nutrition boiled out of them, it was fantastic.

A knock on the inside door alerted them, and Naruto stood. "I'll get it, you keep eating."

Naruto opened the door, and found Jiraiya.

"Hey, Ero-sennin. What's up?"

"Not much. I see you have a friend." The older man sighed inwardly, knowing it would probably be a long road to the point where Naruto referred to him with any sort of respect.

"Yeah...obaa-chan's orders."

"I know, kid. Still, I'm here because I got permission from her to go on a training trip with you."

"Define, 'training trip,' you pervert. I'm not going on a tour of the Elemental Nations to spy on womens' hot springs."

"As fantastic as that idea you've just given me may be, I mean it the way it sounds. I'll be training you while we're on the move, it'll keep the Akatsuki off your back, and as a bonus, we may be able to destroy some of Orochimaru's old bases on the way. Might even learn something or another from them?"

"You said _what_ now?" Tayuya stood, a stern look on her face.

"I said we'll be ransacking Orochimaru's bases on the-" Jiraiya paused for a moment, his face lighting up in realization.

"...I smell a loophole that Ero-sennin is about to leap through."

"You were one of his personal guards." He said, looking at Tayuya. "You know where _all_ of his bases are."

"When do we leave?" She asked.

"I would say, 'right now,' but that knucklehead," Jiraiya pointed to Naruto, "would object. How about...three days?"

"How long will we be gone?" Naruto was the one to ask the _other_ most important question.

"Three years, give or take. There's a lot you need to learn, and a lot that I may not be able to teach you very well. Hopefully, though, you'll be able to pony up and play in the big leagues...Kakashi, Tsunade and I won't be able to protect you forever, especially since you want to take the hat from her. And _you._ " His focus shifted back to Tayuya. "I see no reason to leave you out. Plus, I could see about finding a way to remove the seal that bastard put on you."

"Okay, piss-for-brains, I take it back. You're not too nice. This whole damn village is too nice, and you're just the head of the pack."

"I don't know what to tell you." Naruto shot back. "Blame my tragic backstory that lends itself toward making me a person that wants others to be happy?"

"God, you're sappy. If I get killed because you made me go soft, I'm gonna come back to beat your shitty little ass to death with me."

"Well then, Tayuya-chan~, I guess I'll just have to _protect_ you!" His sing-song voice was mocking.

"You little shit!"

Jiraiya smiled, almost content enough to close his eyes; it was like a repetition of the past, with a young Minato and Kushina standing in front of him...thinking of them, however, immediately soured the scene before him. It was a reminder of his failure to them. Their names, right next to each other on the Memorial Stone, were a permanent monument to all of his sins.

"I just wanted to deliver the news." He said. "I'll meet you by the East Gate, in three days, at noon. I'll let Tsunade know you'll be coming with us, Tayuya."

He turned and walked out, closing the door behind him.

The East Gate...that brought back memories for Naruto. The battle against Gaara, transformed in a full possession mode by the Ichibi. Defeating it had earned him his promotion to Chunin. Hell, anybody who could beat a Biju was worthy of Jonin status as far as threat level was concerned, but he wasn't going to complain. If nobody knew how dangerous he was, then nobody would ever expect to die at his hands.

And, as it turned out, people were pretty good at dying when he was the one killing them. Gato had found that out first-hand. The despotic merchant arrived just a few minutes early, just close enough that Naruto's heightened senses, along with Kakashi and Zabuza's war-raised abilities, had been able to pick him out...and the army of mercenaries he'd brought with him had been a fair clue, as well.

That was the day that gave the Kyuubi a level of respect for Naruto, his battle against the Kirigakure nukenin abandoned at the revelation of Gato's betrayal.

 _"Change of plans,"_ Kakashi had said. _"They're on our side now."_

 _"Haku, the mission is dead. Time to cut our losses...and our employer."_

Naruto hadn't needed to be told twice, three steps of his demon miasma-enhanced chakra bounding him forward so that he could crash headlong into the mercenaries' front ranks.

That had been a good day.

"Hey, piss-for-brains." Tayuya's voice brought him back to the present. "Did something feel off about him, right at the end?"

"Eh, sort of? He changes moods a lot when I'm around. Couldn't tell you why, though."

"It seemed like he got really sad, all of a sudden. Your guess is as fuckin' good as mine."

Leaving the mystery behind, they went back to their meal.

* * *

Once the sun had set, after all had been said and done, Jiraiya had come to visit Tsunade in her office while nobody could possibly interrupt their conversation.

"I hate you. You and your goddamn loopholes. You know that, you perverted toad?"

"Think about it, though. This gets Naruto out and about so that he can actually learn something about the world beyond the missions when you allow him outside these walls on your orders, and it keeps Tayuya from potentially falling into Danzo's hands."

"Because the possibility of Orochimaru retaking her is the lesser of two evils?" Tsunade nearly shrieked, a titanium ball being crushed under her hand.

"Yes, actually." The look he gave her said that the question wasn't up for discussion, regardless of who technically outranked whom. Tsunade knew that if the chips were down, and it really came to blows, Jiraiya could wipe the floor with her. Years of dodging her attacks in their childhood training had made him _fast._ Still, disgruntled as she was, she allowed herself to move on.

"My informant told me that the Akatsuki won't start to move for another three years. That gives me a limited window of time to really teach him...whether it's about Fuinjutsu, his contract with the toads, mastering the Biju inside of him, or even just general jutsu techniques and physical training? He needs to learn it, and I'm the only one who can teach him." His arms crossed in front of his chest, the grim countenance he'd taken on was the same as Tsunade remembered it.

This was the Jiraiya who wouldn't take, "no," for an answer. This was the Jiraiya who had appeared on missions during the Second War, who had broken his back to stop a boulder from crushing her head, who had made himself bait so that she and Orochimaru could run for help and then broke hell loose because he didn't have to worry about protecting his weaker, faster, _smarter_ comrades. If she tried to forbid him from doing this, he would disregard her authority and go behind her back.

Jiraiya had stopped being afraid a long, long time ago. He didn't fear death, and he was no longer scared of losing anyone else close to him. Not since Minato and Kushina died, followed by Orochimaru's discovery and defection. He could easily go rogue, and she doubted that anyone in Konoha would be able to stop him or bring him back in if he did. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that he would go whether she allowed it or not.

"Tsunade."

There was silence for a minute, and he tensed reflexively when she reached for a drawer at her desk, but he relaxed when it turned out to be nothing more than a large bottle of sake and her own personal drinking cup.

"Did it hurt you as much as it hurt me, watching them?"

"You didn't spend time with Minato and Kushina. Not like I did."

"I was still around them, though. Even Orochimaru admitted that they were very..."

"They were perfect for one another, and everybody knew it. They were twenty-two, Tsunade. They had been married for three years, they were about to start raising a family, and one night ripped them both from the face of the earth. No matter what, I _will not_ let that happen to their son. They named me his godfather, and it's about goddamn time I start acting like one. He is coming with me, and so is the girl. That's the end of the discussion, and I don't give a damn if you put a page out for me in the Bingo Book. In three days, I'm taking those kids out of this village of bad memories and shattered dreams. Danzo started the Ne corps because he wanted to protect Konoha, whether or not people knew. Orochimaru began his experiments because he wanted the tragedies that happened in the Second and Third Wars, and the Kyuubi attack, to be relegated to history. Itachi worked his way through the ranks of our shinobi because he wanted to tie his clan more closely to the village, rather than instigating a revolt."

He took a deep breath before continuing.

"Naruto wants to become Hokage so that he can protect the people who have shunned him, spit on him, cursed his name and attacked him since he was old enough to act for himself. I'm not going to let his good intentions become another failure, another horror story, another bitter stain in the pages of Konoha's history."


	3. Please, Define the Word 'Betrayal'

**Back again already? Shit, I'm being too nice to you guys. Three chapters in two days may be a record for me.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. draven32: You're good, man. I was a little hot-headed since that's generally the one part of my writing style that nobody ever criticizes. Also, yeah, I was aiming for humor; glad you enjoyed it! Naruto doesn't need to be as stupid as a lot of people seem to imply that he is in canon. Two-trick pony? Yes. Idiot? No. That having been said, a Naruto whose intelligence is on the level of Shikamaru or Kakashi just...doesn't sit right with me. There's gotta be a middle ground, you know?**

 **2\. Hanmac: Eh, we'll see. Like I said, I'm basically writing this story as I come up with plot on the fly, so while I won't _rule out_ more risque things happening, I also can't say for certain that they'll happen.**

 **3\. SSJ3 Kyuubi Gohan: ...holy shit, dude, long time no see. Glad to have you back on board for...whatever the hell this is. I've already covered my thoughts on your actual review at some point in the last two ANs, but thank you for the review, and I hope you like what my brain keeps coming up with!**

 **4\. Guest: I feel you, I'm caught sometimes when I want to review a story but I'm not logged in. Still, could've used your username so that I wouldn't have to just give you an anonymous shout-out from the heavens.**

 **5\. TheGamer58: Yeah, I like Naru/Tayu a lot too. Like I've said, Naruto/Yugito is my favorite overall, but considering just how little screen time she gets, her whole personality is up for the writer's invention. Aside from some widely-accepted headcanon stuff that we've come up with, her entire life and existence is a mystery and a half, so I figured I'd try something with someone who's got a little more exposition in the series. Hell, wasn't Yugito only in the manga for like...two, three pages? That's some bullshit.**

 **As always, thanks to all of you for your continued support!**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"This isn't as awkward as it would have been if Ero-sennin hadn't stopped by yesterday." Naruto observed. "I wonder how that talk with obaa-chan went?"

"I still can't fuckin' believe you live in the slums. Shouldn't you have, I don't know, a real appartment?" Tayuya kept an even pace with him as they walked.

"What can I say, Tayuya-chan? Once you've been a gutter rat, you never really leave that life behind. Only difference is, a gutter rat gets kicked around by the bigger kids. All the bullies who beat me up as a kid? I'm a whole lot stronger than they are, now. When the name of the game is, 'Survive or Die,' you learn how to be able to live no matter what happens."

"I know all about that...and fuckin' stop adding -chan to my name, you asshole."

"Maybe when you stop calling me piss-for-brains."

"Not gonna fuckin' happen, piss-for-brains."

"Then it's not gonna happen, Tayuya- _chan._ Also, we're here."

"A ramen stand? Really?"

"Oh, just watch me." He looked at her with the sort of smugness that only someone with full control over his own situation could muster. "Ayame onee-sama! Teuchi-jiji! One Uzumaki-sized combo platter!"

"Those words coming out of your mouth make sense individually...what kind of ramen stand serves a _platter?_ Like, of all gimmicks?"

"The kind of ramen stand that serves Naruto, even on the occasions when he wasn't able to pay." A tall, brown-haired girl who Tayuya assumed to be Ayame, walked out and spoke. "My father doesn't run a charity here, but he's always offered a free meal a day in the event that money is an issue. Besides, as often and as much as Naruto eats here, we could probably shut down and have enough money to last us another ten or twelve years!"

"Glad to see you and your lady friend are getting along so well." A newcomer, Kakashi, said to announce his arrival. "And it's good to hear that he's supported you all that well, Teuchi-san, Ayame-chan."

"Nowhere else I'd rather go!" Naruto laughed. "Store-bought stuff is okay on missions, when I can't come in, but if I can get the best in the world, then I won't settle for less!"

"Ah, Ayame-chan, I'll have...pork and vegetables, if that's alright?"

"You always fumble over it, Kakashi-san, like you don't get the same thing three times in a row before moving down to the next item on the menu."

"Hmm...am I really that predictable?"

"As predictable as the tardiness that Naruto always tells me about."

"Naruto!" Kakashi exclaimed in mock horror. "How dare you say such slanderous things to besmirch my name in the mind of this beautiful young woman!"

"Ah, yes, how dare I tell the truth? Shame on me!"

"What will you get, Tayuya-chan?"

"Uh, beef sounds good." She would be lying if she said that she didn't feel uncomfortable around all the warmth that the three of them gave off, interacting with each other. The last time she'd known anything like that was so long ago, so deeply-buried by memories of all that came after the laughter, that she didn't want to dig the feelings up.

Was it all some joke that everybody was in on, except her? Was this hell, her punishment for dying in the forest against that pineapple-haired bastard and that goddamned fan-wielding bitch from Sunagakure? Was she in Orochimaru's lab, waiting for another dose of painkillers so that he could wake her up once he finished?

Actually, she surmised, it would probably be worse to be on the White Snake's operating table. As the saying went, "thank the gods for small graces," or some similar figure of speech. She could deal with this discomfort.

Minutes later, she saw why they called it the Uzumaki-size. Thirty bowls arranged in a spiral that seemed to be based off of the red circle on the backs of all Konoha-issued flak jackets.

"That's goddamn huge! Don't tell me you're gonna-" She began, but was interrupted.

"Like I said, Tayuya-chan. Just watch me."

After her own bowl of beef ramen had arrived, he began eating. To her shock, amazement, and mild horror, the soup seemed to fly into his mouth of its own volition. Bowls larger than his head, taking up almost all of the counter, and within fifteen minutes he had finished just as many bowls. Tayuya was eating slowly, partially in wonder and partially because his continued effort made her lose a little more of her hunger.

Did the Kyuubi no Kitsune have a salt-tooth that craved ramen noodles?

* * *

Inside of the Shiki Fuin, the almighty Kurama had willed a tube into existence which poured ramen broth in a fountain to drink from.

This was a perfectly reasonable thing to do, it told itself.

Anybody else would have done exactly the same thing, it told itself.

By all the dead gods of the lands that sunk beneath the waves, it loved ramen, it told itself.

As much as it loved freedom?

Maybe not, it told itself, but when it could only have one of those two choices at a time...well, it was easier to just enjoy the ramen while it could. The longer it cooperated with the Uzumaki boy, the more ramen it could have.

Chakra for ramen. That boy was a fool, its chakra was almost limitless! There was no reason not to offer up some fraction of its power for the intoxicating taste of ramen!

...it told itself.

* * *

"You're fuckin' insane. You have to be. No normal person could do that, let alone think it was a _good idea_ to do that."

"So? The idea was to make you a little more comfortable around me, and the village. There's a saying, something about 'those who share a meal together will be more familiar,' or something like that?"

"That sounds like something you came up with on your own."

"No, I really didn't! Besides, it worked, right?"

"Maybe, if by, 'more familiar,' you mean that I am never, _ever_ paying for you to eat somewhere. Goddamn."

For her, the familiarity he talked about had come when she'd woken with him beside her. In Otogakure, in order to conserve building materials for each of Orochimaru's bases, ninjas hot-bunked and slept with one's feet level to the other's head. She couldn't count the number of times when she'd woken up to her bunk-mate transforming into the second stage of their curse seal, and been forced to kill them before they had gotten it into their head to kill her.

Orochimaru hadn't been the kind of leader to inspire complacence or comfort in his ranks.

"Ah...that hit the spot. Thanks, Ayame onee-sama!"

"You're welcome, Naruto-kun! You know you're always welcome here."

"I know!" His smile was so warm, it almost put Tayuya on edge. Reflexes died hard, and training as a kunoichi dictated that whenever a man smiled like that...no, she decided. She'd read his dossier before leaving Otogakure. If the way he acted was all a front that hid a beastly killer inside, then he played that game better than anyone else on earth; no two ways about it. To that end, it was just easier to believe that he was being genuine at every second. Hell, even though she didn't want to die, she knew that she deserved it in the eyes of those who knew about her previous affiliation. They had to think like that, didn't they?

Konoha's inner ruthlessness, and outer sweetness, were something of a known distinction. Iwa was predictable; obedience to the Tsuchikage, and the chain of command, was paramount above all else. Suna was a nation of through-and-through mercenaries who weren't above switching sides if the reward turned out to be better, or abandoning a mission if all hope of completion was lost. The idea of dying for the sake of a mission didn't appeal to the desert-dwellers.

Kumogakure was the most hawkish and aggressive, and while Konoha's many great names gave it strength, Kumo was arguably the strongest of the Five Great Nations. Kiri was something of an enigma, with a civil war raging wild between the tyrannical Yondaime Mizukage and the people who couldn't stand living under his regime any longer. It didn't seem like it would be stopping any time soon, either.

Konoha, on the other hand...while they had come out the winner in all three of the Great Wars, the village was reportedly rank with corruption. Only in Konoha could two comrades be sent on opposing missions, sometimes even forced to fight one another to the death. Only Konoha was rumored to have a second, hidden Anbu corps that, on paper, didn't exist. Shimura Danzo was as shady as they came, and prior to losing an arm in the Second War, he had been one of Konoha's most feared assassins as the Yomi no Shinobi. Only Konoha raised such a large populace on the ideas of peace and love and prosperity, that the Will of Fire would carry them through to a brighter day, only to sentence innocents to death through acts of aggression or willing negligence.

And yet, right next to her, a boy whose hair outshone the sun was proving to her that maybe Konoha wasn't as terrible as the rumors and information she'd gathered over the years.

Or, maybe, he was the one spark of light left in a village rotting from the inside out.

* * *

"You'll be gone for three years?" Sakura questioned, her mouth making a small circle of worry and wonder.

"Yeah, I know it's really sudden. Still, you never know, we might come back to visit!"

Team Seven was gathered at their original training ground, all together, for what would possibly be the last time in the next three years.

"You're lucky, you moron. Getting to train with one of the Sannin, and you treat it so casually?"

"Hey, you dumb bastard, we were the same way about Kakashi-sensei before we knew how strong he was!"

Sasuke paused, remembering that information.

"God, remember how you introduced yourself? How much more emo could you have-" Now it was Naruto's turn to stop. "Wait...no. You _did_ get more emo. Like, you graduated from emo to goth, minus the face paint and the eyeliner and stuff. Sakura, you should help him with that stuff!"

"Naruto, I swear to fucking god I will beat the _shit_ out of you!"

"You don't have much time left to try, asshole!"

Tayuya, once again the outsider in Naruto's personal life, hung back several feet. She knew that this wasn't her place. These were not her people.

"Stop it, you two." Kakashi's words were an order, but his tone said that he wouldn't stop them unless it came to a death-match.

Given the explosion she'd heard before Jiraiya had found her broken body in the forest, Tayuya guessed that they had very nearly come to that point at least once before. She _really_ didn't want to be there when a Jinchuriki, and someone who Orochimaru had believed to be strong enough to become his next host body, fought for keeps.

"Anyway, Naruto, we're all here because we wanted to give you two some gifts before you left!" Sakura announced.

"Both of us?" Tayuya questioned.

"Well, I don't know about them, but _I_ got something for you. Sasuke-kun told me that you use a flute to cast Genjutsu, but it broke when you got crushed. So I bought you a new one!"

It was gold, though that was just the outer polish and the inner coating. Still, after playing a couple of practice scales and adjusting the mouthpiece until it was in tune...it was a much better flute than the one she'd had previously. Sakura had been far too generous with this.

"I don't deserve this, I can't accept it. Why would you be so nice to me?"

"I thought about that, too. You're technically still my enemy, but I believe in Naruto. He's a good judge of character, and he wouldn't stick around you if he didn't think you were a decent person who wouldn't betray us...whether or not the Hokage ordered it." Not that Sakura would ever mention that Naruto had been the one to give her most of the money for it.

"Insubordinate jackass." She said, looking to the blond.

"I'll start respecting her when she starts acting her age. She thinks a Genjutsu will convince everybody that she still has the looks of a woman in her mid-twenties? Yeah, not even _I'm_ that dumb. You mean to tell me, at fifty, that she's never gotten any gray hairs or started-"

"I'm gonna stop you right there." Kakashi said, interrupting his oldest student before he said words that Tsunade would likely have heard from the other side of the world. "Sasuke, you're next."

"I know you don't have much of a skill repertoire, so I brought a scroll on how to perform the Goukyaku no Jutsu. It's a signature Uchiha technique, and whether or not you have an affinity for Katon techniques, we all know you have more chakra than all of us combined. Once you get the speed of hand-signing it down, you could probably blow the top off of a mountain with it."

The raven-haired boy handed the scroll over, and Naruto pocketed it for later.

"...ah, that makes it my turn, doesn't it?" Kakashi said, scratching the back of his head. "Sasuke, Sakura, you can go home. Technically, my present isn't something that Genin are allowed to see or hear."

Though the pair looked disheartened, and Sasuke muttered something about, "favoritism toward the eldest," they were both gone with a fair amount of speed.

"...what's so important that they couldn't know?" Naruto asked.

"Technically, even though it directly concerns you, I could get executed for telling you. I don't know who's watching, so come here and I'll whisper."

Naruto walked forward, and Kakashi leaned down to speak into the younger shinobi's ear.

"You remember how I told you that the names of my best friends are on that stone?"

Naruto gulped. "Yeah, I remember." That had been a sobering revelation.

"Their names, Nohara Rin and Uchiha Obito, are the last on the list of casualties for the Third Great War. After that, the list of deaths from the Kyuubi attack begins. Your parents' names are right next to one another, in that section. There's only one Uzumaki."

Kakashi held loyalty to the village, not to the chain of command. He held loyalty to the bonds he'd made with the people he'd fought beside, not whoever his superior officers were supposed to be. He had been the Sandaime Hokage's right-hand man and been a popular choice for Godaime Hokage, which he might have accepted if not for the fact that he was the Jounin-sensei of Team Seven. He had served in Danzo's Ne operations, though the seal on his tongue had long ago been erased. He had been a member of Anbu Team Ro, nicknamed, "the Death Squad," for its historically high kill count. He held loyalty for his father's ideals, loyalty to the teammates he'd let down and been to the funerals of.

Most of all, though, he was loyal to the spirit, the memory, and the legacy of his mentor. He had shadowed the man's wife all through her pregnancy, had been present at Naruto's birth. Whoever the masked man was, he was the one responsible for the deaths of Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina.

If he was still alive, Kakashi had sworn, then he would kill that man himself. He'd had no intention of teaching anybody but Naruto, or whatever team he was placed on. The son of his sensei deserved nothing less. He hadn't been able to prevent Minato and Kushina's deaths...but he could do something to keep Naruto safe. Kakashi was stronger now than he'd been fifteen years ago, and if Naruto was half the man that his father was, then it was a fair bet that his dreams of becoming Hokage might come to fruition not long after his return from this training trip.

Itachi had confided in him, as a former teammate and as a man who held the same values, before fleeing the village. The Uchiha scion had known that the infamous Issenjutsu no Meijin, the Master of One Thousand Arts, would possibly be the only other man in Konoha to understand.

To both of the Sharingan-wielders, one person had been worth more than their whole village.

A purple-haired Anbu with a Neko mask was watching from the south, and she knew that he knew that she knew what he'd said. He also knew that she wouldn't report it to Tsunade, out of her own loyalty to him.

The Slug Princess might have been the Hokage, with the rank-and-file ninja owing fealty to her and the civilians accepting her status, but there were many factions of power in the shadows of Konohagakure's streets...Danzo held the unquestioned obedience of his own hundreds-strong Ne forces, and the true elite of Konoha's forces saw Tsunade as little more than a bench-warmer for someone who hadn't been gone from the village for over two decades. They would pay her lip service, but their ties had been to the Sandaime's regime and those who had stayed loyal to it.

The Uchiha had planned a revolt out of dissatisfaction with their status in the village. Tsunade's reign was proving unpopular with most of the Shinobi who had been in the corps as recently as the Uchiha Massacre. If she wasn't careful, then she would face her _own_ revolution, but she didn't have her own Itachi to quell such a takeover.

"You should ask Jiraiya about them, when you get the chance. He taught your father, and your father taught me. Whatever you do, though, when he asks you how you know...just tell him that you know married couples have their names put next to each other."

That would still be a dead giveaway, and potentially paint a target on his own back, but Kakashi knew Jiraiya. They both felt the same way about Naruto; they would both do whatever it took to keep the son of the Yondaime Hokage alive. Nothing else mattered.

As Kakashi walked away, fading into a _shunshin_ that made him vanish, he asked himself whether it might be worth putting his private war with Danzo on hold.

Naruto took slow, heavy steps toward the stone in front of him, finding the Rin and Obito that his sensei had told him about. He continued scanning the plate for names of the fallen, until he found it. Double-checking the rest of the list, he saw that Kakashi had been right; there was only one Uzumaki on the list. Even on the list of names from the First, Second, and Third Great Wars, there were no other members of the Uzumaki family.

 _Uzumaki Kushina,_ the engraving read. Uzumaki Kushina...his mother.

He looked at the name underneath: _Sarutobi Biwako._ That wasn't right, obviously. She had been the wife of the Sandaime, he remembered asking about her when he was younger. Seeing that the name underneath was obviously not right, he looked above it and stopped breathing.

His eyes were wide as he sank to his knees in front of the memorial, but he couldn't look away from the name he saw.

 _Namikaze Minato._ The cold metal seemed to speak to him, and he finally turned away, only to look at the Hokage Monument where every past leader of Konoha had their face carved into the mountainside.

His eyes went red in a split-second, fanged teeth bared in a snarl.

The world had a lot of explaining to do.


	4. Dwelling on the Past, and the Future

**Four chapters in three days. I should be asleep right now, I have to get up for work in four hours, but I don't give a damn. When I want to write, I will _write,_ goddammit!**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. OneLunchMan: Yeah, I feel like everybody always presents Kurama as some ultimate badass demon. Not gonna lie, I'll probably get around to that too, but I set myself up too perfectly with Tayuya's thought process to allow that joke to _not_ be said.**

 **2\. draven32: The revelation of his parentage, to me, really fell flat. Like, this information was kept from you for sixteen years and you just...giddy up and move along? Fuck, if I found out my dad was some legendary warrior, I'd want some answers as to why the hell nobody ever told me! The way I see it, if Naruto knows from the beginning, then he would feel like he's living in the shadow of shoes he can't feel. If it's revealed to him, intentionally or not, I can only imagine he'd be angry. As to the other parts of your review:**

 **I write when I have time, and it just so happens that I've been spending more time writing than usual; it normally takes me a week or two, sometimes a month or more, to get a chapter out. Take it as an invitation to continue reviewing, because I'm always inspired to write more when people leave feedback for me!**

 **I also...have no idea how long this story will be. At all. When I say, "I write whatever my brain comes up with," I mean it. hell, technically I could end it after this chapter and we could all just imagine how Naruto and Tayuya will adjust to life together and gain stronger ties with the people he's grown up with. Your guess is as good as mine, pal. Probably better, actually.**

 **3\. TheGamer58: Oh, don't worry, I can be pretty slow to update too. People are still following and favoriting _Reign In Blood_ since I never technically said, "I'm totally abandoning this story," despite the fact that it's been two years. I'd say that's a slow update.**

 **And, yeah, it's fuckin' hell for a dude's OTP to be two characters who literally never meet and one of whom just...might as well not exist, tbh. More bizarre than any of JoJo's adventures. Goddamn awful. I impress _myself_ with that level of stupidity, but I can't just pick and choose what pairings set my soul on fire, you know?**

 **...god forbid I not have exactly four thousand words this chapter. Here is a filler sentence for you to read.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"...Naruto?"

Night had fallen a long time ago. By Tayuya's nearest guess, it was close to midnight, and they would be leaving with Jiraiya in thirty-six hours.

The area around them had been turned into a wasteland; Trees bent at odd angles, the ground carved into at random intervals with varying depths, Dying embers from the fires he'd begun as he mastered the Goukyaku no Jutsu that Sasuke had given him.

"Naruto." She said again. "Stop it."

"D **on't** **te** ll me w **hat to** do!" He yelled, most of his clothing burned away in his early failures to create the Grand Fireball. She could see the thin miasma coming off of him, and the fluctuation in his voice told her that he wasn't stable.

"Stop it, you goddamn piss-brain! Just fuckin' stop!"

Within seconds, he was right in front of her, and she could feel the corrupted chakra flowing through him.

"All i **t would ta** ke i **s five minutes for** the Kyuubi' **s chakra to eat you** alive. Don't **get in m** y way!"

"Do it, then, you bitch. Kill me like Konoha should have done when they found me. Kill me like Orochimaru will if I ever get captured. Kill me like Sasuke would have before you stopped him. I don't give a fuck."

Naruto's eyes narrowed, the malicious chakra beginning to draw itself to his stomach in a concentrated ball. Then, without warning, it disappeared as his eyes returned to their natural blue.

"...I can't."

"You're too soft, Naruto."

"Only because you haven't given me a reason not to be...come on. Let's go home."

He didn't let her get wise to the fact that she'd been using his real name, since she didn't seem to realize it herself.

His answers would have to wait.

* * *

Naruto woke to a heavy weight shifting on top of him. Blinking twice, he realized that it was actually Tayuya.

"Care to explain?"

"I was cold, you're warm," she mumbled, "now lemme sleep."

"Whatever you say, _hime-sama._ Should I worry about being used as a teddy bear every night?"

"Yes."

Trying his best to ignore the tangle of limbs around him, Naruto closed his eyes and drifted back to sleep. Two hours later, he woke up again, but this time it was to the sound of Tayuya's new flute. The notes were gentle, flowing, and felt laced with a haunting sadness that he understood, but couldn't quite put his finger on.

"You play well." He said, making her stop in surprise. The startling effect of being caught in such a private moment was foreign to her; in Otogakure, she'd never been able to let down her guard. On the other hand, being around Naruto was enough to put her at ease...something else that she wasn't used to. His particular brand of personal gravity was unnerving, but not unwelcome.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you stop. Are you hungry?"

She nodded, then went back to playing.

As he got out the flour, intent on making pancakes, he realized the name of the emotion that her song made him feel.

 _Loneliness._

It was something that he understood painfully well, and the night before had only confirmed it.

Why had Kakashi not told him before? Why had Jiraiya said nothing? Had Tsunade not known?

Why would the Sandaime have kept secrets from him? How was it that nobody, not even Naruto himself, had recognized the physical similarities between himself and his father?

He needed to know the answers to those questions. He had one day left before they were going to leave Konoha for three years, and that meant he had to find out _today._ He would be going to the back room of the shinobi library after their brunch.

* * *

"Record of service...signature technique...goddamn, nothing here."

"I can't find anything either, shithead. I'm going as fast as I-" She stopped, finding something. "Hey, look at this."

 _Uzumaki Kushina. Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Wife of the Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato. Deceased, Kyuubi attack. Notable achievements: defense of Konohagakure in the Third Great War, suppression of hostilities after the end of the war. Relations: Namikaze Minato, deceased (Kyuubi attack). Unnamed child, deceased (Kyuubi attack)._

According to the Akashic Record of Konoha, he didn't exist.

 _Uzumaki Naruto. Unknown parentage. Active duty. Notable achievements: liberation of Nami no Kuni, defeat of the Ichibi Jinchuriki Sabaku no Gaara. Specialty: Ninjutsu._

...or maybe he did.

"'Unknown parentage,' my ass." Tayuya said. "Maybe we can find out why in the legal section?"

Naruto groaned inwardly. He was an enemy of established law, not one of its proponents!

Of course, after the Uchiha Massacre, there hadn't been much of a law outside of the Sandaime's will.

"It would have been put in place after the Kyuubi attack." Naruto said. "Looks like there's only one book that has anything that recent."

"Makes it easy." Tayuya said. Fifteen minutes later, they had found it.

 _The Sandaime Hokage's Mandate: that no citizen of the village, or any member of its shinobi forces, reveal to Uzumaki Naruto (or any of the younger generations to follow in the future) his parentage or Jinchuriki status, under pain of death. Citing fear for the newborn's life from the enemies of his parents in Iwagakure and Kumogakure, as well as wishing to avoid ignorant attacks from civilians upon his life or ostracization based upon Jinchuriki status, the mandate has been critically reviewed as poor judgement on the Sandaime's part due to the latter two occurrences' frequency and a lack of control over his own strength._

All of it, written plainly as day, in the one place he never would have gone until the revelation from last night had hit him.

"He was just trying to help me." Naruto said. "He failed, but...he was just trying to help."

It didn't take a genius to know that he was saying it for his own benefit, trying to make himself believe it.

"You need to take your mind off of it." Tayuya said, taking the book and putting it back on the shelf. "Not that you're interested, but I know some ways."

"If it has anything in relation to the girls I protect as part of my rent, then yeah, I'm not gonna bite."

Tayuya mock-pouted, walking behind Naruto and draping her arms across his chest.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Besides, I know you're acting."

"Aww...you're no fun."

"Says every teenage girl with a sex drive to a guy that doesn't want what she's putting out."

"Can't be a drive if you haven't driven before, piss-brain. Now follow me outside, and you're gonna think of something to do that'll take your mind off of this bullshit."

Wordlessly, and gratefully, he followed after her.

* * *

Walking into the weapon shop, Naruto felt an odd sense of comfort...probably because he knew that none of these weapons would be used against him.

"Oi, anyone home?"

"Naruto-kun!" Came the voice of a girl Tayuya hadn't met yet.

"Hey, Tenten-chan. How's the old man?"

"Out back, forging. You know how he is. Why are you here, and...who's she?"

"Tayuya." The redhead announced herself. "Technically, I'm a prisoner, but the Hokage decided to torture me by making this blond ball of ass-kissing sunshine be my guard."

"Oh, I heard about that from Neji. You're the survivor?"

"Yeah."

"Well, since you haven't killed anyone yet, and Naruto-kun hasn't gone after you, I guess that means you're okay. I'll ask you again, though, Naruto-kun: why are you here?"

"Geez, can't an old friend pay a visit? I swear, I'm not up to something!"

"That's what you said last time, and then you painted the Hokage Monument to make them all look like they were from _Street Fighter._ Although, I have to admit, that was funny. I never would have suspected that the Shodaime was secretly Bison."

"Yeah..." There was a far-off look in Naruto's eyes, and then he stopped reliving the memory. "...really, though, I came here for business. Think your pops can be convinced to let me make myself a special order that needs to be done before noon tomorrow?"

"That depends, what are you looking to make? We've always been glad when you've come around, I know you know how to forge, but..."

"You ever wielded a falx, Ten-chan?"

"Those curved swords you have to wield backwards? They're so impractical, you have to swing them like an axe!"

"You ever see what it can do?"

"No, I've never actually known anybody who's used one."

"Well, I remember hearing about it, and there was a man who used one on a C-rank mission that I went on. It can split through samurai armor, and the chainmail they have underneath. It can cut off any limb in one swing, and go all the way through someone. It breaks through swords with a strong enough swing...basically, once you learn to use it, you don't really need much else. The claw is difficult to master, though."

Tenten thought about it for a moment. "Well, go ahead. With you and your clones, you'll probably get it done in half the time."

"Thanks. I'll come back tomorrow to pick it up and pay you."

Ten clones appeared, rushing into the back room.

"Oi, Higurashi otou-san! We're home!" One clone said.

Tenten smiled.

"Some days, I wish he'd picked you instead of me, you know? You don't deserve what happened to you."

"Nah, I'm glad it turned out like this. Tenten the crybaby turned into a woman I'd be scared to run into!"

"Only because of you." She countered. "You made me want to get stronger, and made it feel like everything was going to be okay."

Now it was Naruto's turn to smile. "I just do what I can. I care, maybe a little too much. Anyway, though, I thought that you and us and the rest of the Konoha Twelve might be able to go out for dinner tonight? I swiped Ero-sennin's checkbook, so the whole thing will be my treat. Golden Dragon sound good enough?"

"If you hadn't come in here with a girl, I would have thought you were hitting on me just now. Is this a bribe?" Tenten raised an eyebrow.

"God, no, I'm no womanizer. You should remember _that_ much about me, at least. Besides, don't you like Neji?"

"I mean, I'd _settle_ for Neji, sure. You're the one who had me first, though, Naruto _onii-chan_." She joked.

"Right. Because _that_ doesn't sound sketchy as fuck." Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Eh, I've seen you naked. We were four and five, I think, but still. I've seen you naked, and it was before you got all those scars you keep trying to hide. Honest to god, for a man who's such shit at Genjutsu, you sure figured out how to make a really fucking good one."

"It doesn't help that he keeps fuckin' losing his top." Tayuya added. "You'd think he actually wants them to be seen."

"Oh, no. We're not doing this. The two of you are not going to bond by mocking me."

"Actually, onii-chan, that's exactly what we're going to do. Matter of fact, I think I'll upgrade you to that from 'piss-for-brains.'" Tayuya mocked him.

"Because his hair is yellow?"

"...you know what, onii-chan, I take it back. I love this village. this girl _gets_ me."

As usual, for Naruto, things always seemed to go from bad to worse. Never in his life would he have thought that being called a big brother could feel so demeaning, let alone that it felt like Tayuya was insulting him more by calling him that.

There was no mercy in this world...or, rather, it was the fact that he always gave those mercies up. Quietly, as the two young women talked, he began to drift back into his memories.

 _Naruto huddled closely to the smaller Tenten, his jacket large enough to fit both of them inside of it with tossed-out rags from a dumpster serving as a blanket. He was hungry, he hadn't eaten in two days, but Tenten was smaller and had needed the food more. For the last two days, he'd given the free bowls of ramen from Teuchi and Ayame to Tenten instead of eating them himself. Even now, he was giving her the heat from his body so that she could stay warm on the cold winter night. She had cried herself to sleep again, and her tears had soaked through his shirt to wet his skin._

They had found Jie Higurashi's smithy and shop a couple of days later, and Naruto had insisted that he take Tenten.

 _"I only have space for one," the man told him. The look in his eyes conveyed a deep sorrow that the two wouldn't be able to stay together. "You would really let her have my home, and not yourself?"_

Of course, when Tenten woke up, she had immediately run out to find her beloved, "onii-san," only for Naruto to show up and take her back to the man's forge.

 _"This is your home now, Ten-chan! He'll give you food and water every day! I promise you, one day, I'll see you in the Ninja Academy! Promise me you'll grow up strong, okay?"_

 _Tenten was choking up, threatening to cry. "O-o-okay, onii-san-n. Promise?"_

 _"Promise! I never go back on my word!"_

Absentmindedly, he sent out shadow clones to meet with the other members of the Konoha Twelve, a collection of Genin who'd taken the Chunin Exams together that Naruto had failed to graduate with, followed by his theft of the Forbidden Scroll.

They would be there, he knew, except for Rock Lee. That boy was so battered, it was a miracle he'd survived. Naruto's personal theory was that the boy had some kind of god looking after him.

"Shithead, you really are just _way_ too nice." Tenten had just finished telling Tayuya about how she'd managed to end up as the adopted daughter of a weapon-smith, just as Naruto had been remembering it.

"Can't help it." He grunted. "Too hard not to be nice."

"You're a ninja, Naruto-kun, you're not supposed to be nice. Mission priorities, stuff like that, we learned it in school?"

"I didn't learn _shit_ in school. Why do you think I failed three times and got by on a fluke?"

"You're telling me that they made you a Genin anyway after you failed the third time?"

"Extenuating circumstances. I maybe, kind of, stole the Forbidden Scroll and learned a technique off of it. After that, it was execution or recruitment."

"You did _WHAT?_ "

"Snuck into the Hokage Mansion in the dead of night between patrol shifts, incapacitated the Hokage with a _henge_ jutsu that I refuse to reenact in present company, stole the Forbidden Scroll, fled into the forest surrounding Konoha, and managed to learn the Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu before using it to kill a traitor to the village."

"Piss-brain, how the fuck did you manage to do that?"

"My test grades were shit, but my practical application of skills was second to none by the third go-around. Hell, I even knew all the answers to the test and I still got them wrong on purpose, just to piss off Iruka-sensei."

"You should have seen him. He could sneak around wearing bright orange, and reflective metal, in broad daylight. Nobody ever saw him if he didn't want to be seen." Tenten added. "Even though I graduated first, I guess I'm still lagging behind you, onii-chan."

Suddenly, a thought hit Naruto.

"Tenten-chan...I just realized, if we're going to the Golden Dragon, Tayuya-chan needs a little something more than..." He made a show of looking up and down in the redhead's direction.

"Let me guess, you want me to take her out and doll her up?"

"Oh, fuck no. That shit ain't me. Hell with it, I'll wait outside and y'all fuckers can enjoy the meal."

"Even if I promise to keep telling you embarrassing stories about the mighty piss-brain onii-chan?"

"I take it back. I'm going, and I'm gonna tell _everybody._ You can't stop me, piss-onii."

It never failed, Naruto surmised. Everything would always find a way to go from bad to worse.

* * *

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll be gone for three years. So this is my big treat for you youngsters, alright?"

"Naruto, you're only a year or two older than us." Sasuke pointed out.

"I don't care, you're all babies. Babies I helped raise in the classroom."

"That wasn't class for you, you big moron, it was naptime!" Kiba said, and got the laugh he'd been looking for out of the others. The Inuzuka was brash and excitable, always trying to breathe a bigger life into a party.

"Or snack time. No matter how many bags of chips Iruka-sensei managed to take away, Naruto always had another one hidden!" Chouji said.

"Still do!" Naruto declared, whipping out an unopened bag.

Their camraderie...Tayuya had forgotten what this felt like, forgotten how good it felt to be surrounded by people you could laugh and joke with. The other members of the Sound Four had been comrades, but none of them were friends; if Orochimaru had ordered it, then they would have fought to the death in an instant. Kimimaro had been even worse.

She felt strange, even with just the light amount of makeup that she had on.

 _"Enough to make it look like you have none."_ Tenten had said.

Her kimono was a rich puple, with a cloudy design sewn with navy blue. The long sleeves threw her off.

"So, Tayuya...I heard from a little bird that Naruto actually lives in a brothel. Is that true?" Ino leaned forward, ever the gossip-queen that she had always been.

"For all you know, he lives in my fuckin' pants, blondie."

"Do not." Naruto countered, but the redhead across from him shook her head.

"Nothing you say is gonna help, piss-brain." Tayuya laughed. "Whose word are they gonna take, the one whose reputation is on the line or the one who has no reason to lie?"

"You dog!" Kiba laughed, hand gripping the older boy's shoulder. "You're a hero to us all!"

As the other young men crowded around Naruto, Tayuya mouthed a silent, "We haven't done anything."

Hinata looked over to the blond boy, and missed the crucial, "yet," that followed with an evil smirk in Naruto's direction.

Sakura and Ino had the decency to blush. Tenten just smiled; she knew that, even if he acted like he wasn't enjoying himself, this was more than her older-brother figure could have dreamed of happening to their lives.

"Onii-chan... _me next._ Please?" She said in a sultry voice, silently apologizing to Neji.

"Ew, Tenten's a brocon!" Ino laughed. "Still, trying to keep that bro all to yourself, Tayuya...that's the real con, here!"

"Oh, you should see him shirtless." Tayuya grinned. "Once you get over just how big his muscles are, your eyes start to go down...and up...and down...and up..."

"Oh my god, this isn't happening." Naruto hung his head in his hands.

"What, you don't want to give them a show now? That'd be the polite thing to do." Even Neji joined in, ribbing on Naruto's shyness. "Maybe you could even call it fate."

"I hate you all." Naruto moaned. "I love you guys, but I really, really hate you all."

"Aw, he said he loves us!" Tenten smirked. "Time to share that love, I guess...I changed my mind. Hinata goes next!"

"Wha...ah!" Hinata gasped as the older girl leaned over, cupping her large bust and raising it to garner attention.

"I'm so dead. I'm, like, so far beyond dead that death has come to unsheathe his scythe from inside of my ass." Naruto regretted having offered to do this. At least he wasn't paying for it.

"I mean, if you really want, I know a few things I can-"

"NO!" He shot down Tayuya's proposal before it could start, and the laughter started all over again.

It was a long night.


	5. Leaf-ing Konoha

**Out of curiosity, am I the only one who isn't having reviews show up when I click on the hyperlink to view them? That shit's annoying.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. Gundagoo: I aim to please. All of my writing serves as a building block to get better at writing, so I'm glad you enjoy it!**

 **2\. DragonPony022: Yeah, "shy," isn't exactly a word to describe canon Naruto. However, as you might have noticed, it's not a huge personality trait of his in this fic, either. I tried to be humorous, and that attempt at humor left me to write Naruto bashfully. And...yeah. He's gonna pass her up for a while, probably. Still gotta think of something that'd make them trust one another more, and/or just feel closer in general.**

 **3\. draven32: Of course he's the clown, he wouldn't be Naruto if he didn't have a knack for practical joking or pranks! Also, I don't know how old you are, but in your high school, do you/did you ever see the "super seniors" who were just totally chill and laid back because they failed to graduate the year before? That was Naruto _twice._ The boy doesn't take anything seriously until he has to.**

 **4\. TheGamer58: A decade waiting for one update? I really hope I never get that bad. There's not going to be a _Children of an Elder God_ experience going on here where I stop writing in 2004 and publish the final chapter in 2014. That was fucking horrendous.**

 **5\. SSJ3 Kyuubi Gohan: I asked myself, "what would my sister, and a girl who lives with me but isn't actually my girlfriend, do when they met?" That's what I came up with. Glad you enjoyed it!**

 **Thanks to everyone else who reviewed, and your support!**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

The sword was cruelly curved, a two-handed behemoth that was designed to pierce through its targets with all the subtlety of a rhino. Though the boy's clones had helped, providing a mass of chakra that he'd manipulated to shape a sealing array, the real work had begun after the chakra surge caused them to dissipate.

That chakra...Higurashi had a difficult time with it. It was foul, corrosive, and violently powerful. The strength of the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

It had blackened the metal he'd been using, a rough-hewn groove carved into the side to lower the overall weight of the blade. The dark chakra had given it a nearly melted look, but he could tell without testing it that it was stronger than any metal he'd ever worked before. It had no guard, only a simple leather-wrapped handle, but the blade's edge was on the inside of the curve; it was designed to be used like a scythe or grain-thresher when attacking from the side, or similar to a mining pick when attacking from above. The lack of a guard also meant that it could rotate easily, protecting the blade from wearing down more quickly than necessary.

It was not beautiful, the back of the weapon being jagged and sharp. It was, in truth, not really a sword. It was too big, too thick, too jagged and too curved.

It was more like a slab of metal, one that had been broken off from the sharpest recession of a cave and wielded as a weapon because nothing else was available.

This was not a weapon worthy of the samurai, or any ninja.

This was a weapon worthy of Uzumaki Naruto.

Finishing the seal that he'd carved into the pommel, he knew his work was done when the sword shrank to a more manageable size. It would respond to Naruto's chakra and return to its true size whenever the boy willed.

"Tenten!" He called out, waiting for the girl to appear before speaking again. "The boy's sword is done. Take it to him."

"But he said he'd come pick it up. Besides, what about payment?"

Higurashi smiled gently. "Do you remember what I told you about my family?"

"They all died in the Second War."

"Yes. However, our clan name, Jie, was taken from a phrase in a language that isn't spoken anymore: _Jie'toh._ Translated, it means, 'repayment of debt.' The _toh_ we owe to that boy is greater than we can ever repay. He gave me a daughter to raise and love, to carry on the Jie way. He gave up his chance of a home, of knowing warmth and rest and a full stomach, because he believed it was more important for you to have those things. _Jie'toh_ has no scale with which to measure how to repay a debt that massive. If he wants a sword, he will have one. If he wants ten, twenty, fifty swords, I will make them. He pays nothing."

Tenten knew that Naruto wouldn't like that; the blond always liked to square his debts, and in his eyes, this would put him in their debt.

Well, she could always tell him that it could be erased by-

 _No. Bad Tenten._ She told herself. That train of thought wasn't one to be entertained.

"Hai, otou-san." She took it and left.

* * *

"What do you mean, I pay nothing? The hell are you on about, woman?"

"That's what otou-san said. He still feels indebted to you for what you did for me...please, just take it!"

"I have to pay you _something,_ at least. Let me-"

"If you don't take it for free, I'm gonna be mad at you!"

Naruto sighed, and took it from her. In truth, this hadn't been what he'd expected at first glance, but after a few swings he understood.

"It's perfect." He smiled. "Tell the old man I said thanks."

Tenten grinned back, nodding before she disappeared in a _shunshin_ to leave Naruto with Tayuya, standing near the East Gate.

Kakashi walked by, seemingly wandering around with his nose in the latest _Icha Icha_ book.

Naruto hadn't seen the man move, but he'd heard the crinkling of paper as Kakashi put a note in his jacket pocket.

"Have a nice trip, you two." He looked up from his book, and the single uncovered eye seemed to convey a smile. "Use protection!"

"Kakashi-sensei, how da-mmph! Mmt fo'f ee!" Naruto's words were a garbled mess after Tayuya covered his mouth with one hand to stop him from causing a scene.

"One of the things you're gonna need to fuckin' learn, piss-for-brains, is that you have absolutely _zero_ situational awareness of how your actions will affect others. God, I'm surprised every other sentence you say doesn't make people think we're fucking!" She hissed.

"Not my fault." He retorted. "You're the one who insisted on sleeping together."

"I heard that, Naruto." Kakashi said. "You also need to work on volume. Still...bold, Tayuya-chan. If you were ten years older, maybe we could have been friends."

"Oh, yeah, like that shitty smut is anything realistic."

"Why would I read shitty smut, and why would I want it to be realistic? Reading fiction is a fantasy, it's an escape from everyday life. Besides, I need to have _some_ hobby besides making certain that I'm late. Speaking of which, I should probably show up to that meeting...ah, no, the road of life is ever-winding. I don't think I've arrived at that meeting yet."

With that, the Mirror Ninja kept walking, head once again buried in his book.

"Un-fucking-believable."

"Believe it."

* * *

They set out on the road just after high noon had struck, three ninja on the road to...well, only one of them knew. A fair number of well-wishers had come to see them off, including Tsunade and Shizune.

"Hey, Ero-sennin, what's the plan?"

"We're heading straight east. Three days until we reach our target...it's a surprise for you, kid."

"Don't say that. I hate surprises."

"This, from the best prankster since the great Jiraiya was a child?"

"Oh, please. Like you could match me, Ero-sennin."

"I pantsed the Sandaime Hokage and made him streak through the village trying to get the pants back."

"I used _that_ jutsu on him and stole the Forbidden Scroll. That's how I learned the Kage Bunshin."

"I tricked Tsunade into using Gamabunta's tongue as a towel when she got out of an onsen."

"Ugh, gross, I don't wanna think about obaa-chan like that! Besides, I planted a stink-bomb in Anbu headquarters and put an odorless laxative powder in the Jounin lounge."

"Oh, yeah, well I..."

"On top of that, I..."

"...painted the Hokage Monument and didn't get caught!" Both of them said at once, shocked for a moment at having fallen in sync.

"Goddamn. Boys and their fuckin' egos...let's get a move on, huh?"

"In a minute. I have a feeling we're being watched...I can't sense them, though."

Within a second, Naruto had called forth a clone. "We'll know in a second. Let's go on ahead anyway."

Nodding, Jiraiya took off, followed by the two younger ninja. Once they were close to being out of eyesight, their watcher revealed himself.

"It's a bad habit to send a clone off with your teammates. What would they think if they knew, Uzumaki?"

"Itachi. Why are you here?"

"To thank you for saving my brother. I may not have come home in seven years, but I still have plenty of ears and eyes in Konoha."

"Give me one reason why I should believe you."

"Kisame and our leader don't know I'm here...you may have pulled a page right out of my book, so to speak. Besides, you and I? We hold opposing beliefs. I sacrificed everything for my brother. You would give anything for the village. I'm interested in seeing whether or not you change to become like me."

"I can't, _Kinslayer._ There aren't any Uzumaki left, besides me."

"You're wrong, and you're missing my point." Itachi ignored the barbed words with the patience of a man waiting for a mosquito to land so that he could kill it.

"You and I, we're cut from the same cloth. The only difference is in our loyalties...I abandoned a village that venerated me. I killed the clan that saw me as the greatest of them since Madara's birth. You remain loyal to the people who wish for your death, and you always choose the road of mercy for your enemies until there's no other path to take. One day, your loyalties will be tested, as mine were. That's when you will know whether you are bound by the orders you are given, or controlled by the bonds that you hold dear."

Naruto stayed silent.

"You, the inheritor of the Sandaime's will...and I, the one who follows the Yondaime's path. I wonder, which of us will prove ourselves right in the end?"

"Get out of here before I stop being nice." Naruto growled. "Never, ever, compare yourself to that man."

"I may be allied with your enemies, and assigned against you, but rest assured...I am not your opponent. If you ever need me, the raven will answer your call for help."

The man broke into a flock of the mentioned birds, one of whom flew itself right into Naruto's mouth and wormed its way inside of his stomach.

"For as long as the raven flies, there will always be someone to help you."

Moments later, Naruto felt the dead weight of several Genjutsu peel away from his senses to leave him standing with Jiraiya and Tayuya.

"What...what was that?"

"I counted those layers. Whoever it was, they managed to drop fifty-six illusions at the same time. There's not many people who have that kind of skill." Tayuya offered. "Come to think of it, the first one I thought of is the only man Orochimaru was afraid of."

"Uchiha Itachi." All three said at once.

"We'd better hurry, then. I don't know why he's letting us get away...maybe he just didn't want to be caught passing by?" Naruto said.

It was a good enough answer to get the other two moving.

* * *

They made camp off of the side of the road on the first night.

"Okay,you two. Here's the idea: over the next three years, I'm going to be training you in a lot of areas...no offense, Tayuya, but my focus _will_ be on Naruto. However, when I'm not training him, I'd be more than happy to look at that seal on you and see if I can make progress towards removing it. Hell, depending on how well he trains, I might even get the kid to see if he can find something I miss. Anyway, though: my focuses will be Taijutsu, Fuinjutsu, and making sure you learn how to control the-" Jiraiya stopped himself.

Tayuya shook her head. "I already know, birdshit-sensei. It was in his file before we left Otogakure."

"Well, that makes it easy. No dancing around the subject, I guess. Anyway, Naruto, if you make good headway with those, then I'll start training you in the Toad Sage arts." Though Jiraiya didn't enjoy Tayuya's new nickname for him, at least he wasn't alone in having one.

"I've never heard of those. What can they do?"

"In the Second War, deep in Kaminari no Kuni, Tsunade and Orochimaru and I were ambushed by twelve platoons."

"Forty-eight on three seems a little bit excessive."

"Yeah, but we were the Sandaime's students. So, anyway, what do those jackasses do? They cut off the top of a mountain and make it fall, then they leave because apparently that was good enough to finish the job. Admittedly, we were in a very small valley that we wouldn't have been able to outrun the damn thing, but...I had Sage Mode. Using it, I was able to strengthen my body with so much chakra that I used my body as a shield for the other two before I shoved a Rasengan into it that was big enough to crunch most of it into dust."

"That sounds insane."

"Yeah, but it's not a good idea to do stuff like that, especially not in wartime. Had I not been using Sage Mode, I would have died, and then the other two would have suffocated to death under me because they weren't killed on impact. So, we're not going to train you in that, at all, until you've shown some huge improvements in physical strength, Fuinjutsu, and reining in the Kyuubi's influence."

"So when do we start?" Naruto asked.

"Once we reach where I'm taking you, because nobody ever goes there. We'll be safe...I think. At least, we _should_ be safe. I don't know if there's any traps left waiting."

"That's reassuring." Tayuya said sarcastically.

"Well, unless you want to traipse around the Elemental Nations where we all have enemies...which we will, eventually, but hopefully it won't be until you two have managed to build your skills up to snuff. Sound good?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Okay, get out your stuff then. I'll keep first wa-"

Three of Naruto's clones appeared. "We'll split the watch, Ero-sennin!" One of them said.

"You know, kid, that jutsu wasn't made to be abused."

"But here I am anyway."

Jiraiya moved away, setting up a lean-to tent and sleeping bag.

"Hey, Naruto. You didn't bring a tent, did you?"

"Uh, no, just a sleeping bag. Why?"

"Take a while fuckin' guess, piss-brain."

"God damn it!" He hissed.

"Calm the fuck down, nothing we haven't done for the last three days."

"Yeah, but...nah, whatever. You go ahead, I gotta look at something for a second."

He pulled the sleeping bag out of his pack, tossing the rolled-up bundle to her.

"Suit yourself, asshole."

After she'd rolled it out and laid down, with his clones patrolling the area, Naruto looked at the scrap of paper he'd been given earlier in the day.

 _Though you'll be gone for three years, nobody in this village will forget you. So don't forget: when you come back, that's when your **real** training can begin. I'll be waiting._

The words disappeared, likely a seal, and Naruto was left staring at a blank piece of paper. Without another word, He placed it back in his jacket's pocket, though he stripped from it before laying down next to Tayuya.

In truth, he didn't care whether she was actually trying to seduce him, or if it was all one big joke to take up her spare time. He knew the reason why Tsunade had originally chosen to stick her to him: she was an outcast with no home, no one to trust, and nothing to lose. At one point in time, that had been Naruto's lot in life. Even through his years at the Academy, he'd lived on the streets instead of the small apartment that the Sandaime had tried to give him. The top floor of that brothel had been his apartment for less than a year.

He hadn't liked the apartment that he'd been given as a child. The walls had told him that he wasn't strong enough to live on his own, so others took pity on him. Having that apartment had told him that he should be afraid of the streets, of the people who walked them. All the while, his presence inside changed nothing about what went on in the outside. He'd made a difference for Tenten, so it stood to reason that he could make a difference for others as well...so he'd abandoned that apartment and gone back to his life as a street urchin.

While it was true that most of the children with civilian parents hadn't associated with him, and that the ninja-born children were almost as reticent to be near him, Naruto had held the top-dog position in the streets he'd roamed since he could walk. He'd been a leader and a brother to them all, and had made sure they all went to the Academy when they were old enough; while it was true that most of them probably wouldn't go very far in their careers, the skills of a street rat were invaluable to the shinobi lifestyle.

If Tayuya had ever had any kind of bonds like that, they had been severed when Orochimaru took her in, and Naruto doubted that anything good would have happened afterward. In the same way that Naruto's luck always went from bad to worse, anything involving the rogue White Snake was certain to be bad news. The man had built a reputation for himself.

As Tayuya shuffled around next to him, he closed his eyes. Whatever the next day would bring, he would face it head-on. No matter what happened in the next three years, he would come out on top. He'd train like hell to make sure of it.

Sleep came quickly, though he was still somewhat conscious of the arms that curled around him.

Well, in the end, it didn't matter. If Jiraiya tried to say something about it, he could endure.


	6. Entering the Ruins, Training Begins

**Back again! God, I love being able to update this quickly.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. Thinker90 and Guest, who both asked the same question: Yes, the idea was that Higurashi is Aiel. I'm glad to see that you have good taste in literature...ngl, I wanted Rand/Aviendha for the final pairing of that series more than anything. I have yet to see if I can come up with anything to make that a bigger plot point, or if I'm just gonna say, "eh, that's a thing that exists in this story."**

 **2\. draven32: The future is the future. As Kakashi says, "I got lost on the road of life." I'll go where I'm taken, man. No use fighting against it, you know?**

 **3\. DragonPony022: Yeah, even though Naruto's infamous for being able to get through people's inner walls, he has a couple of his own that Tayuya needs to knock down, too. As for Itachi...let's just say that I'm starting to flesh out a plan.**

 **4\. Winter Arctica: Absolutely. Kakashi and Jiraiya, in canon, did too little and did it far too late. Hell, you could argue that Itachi did just as much for him with that goddamn bird, because _holy fuck_ the level of meta planning it would have taken to make that plan a reality.**

 **As always, thanks to everyone else who reviewed, and for the continued follows/favorites! Your dedication to enjoying the story inspires my continued drive to write so much, so quickly! Keep it up, and so will I!**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"Ero-sennin, it's been three days. Where the hell are you taking us?"

"We're almost there. Give it about five more minutes, and you'll see why I said nobody will come bother us once we're there."

Soon enough, the trees ended, and the trio arrived at a beach.

"Welcome to the eastern edge of Hi no Kuni." Jiraiya announced.

A bridge extended out into the ocean, broken in more than one place, far enough that it didn't seem to end. Choppy waves, gray and fierce, rolled onto the sand beneath them; it was high tide, and the land was angry. Thunder rolled in the distance, before lightning split the water beneath.

"It's been like this since the end of the Second War, almost forty years ago...my suspicion is that someone died with their hand on a barrier defense post, and that connection keeps chakra circulating even though the person who cast the jutsu is dead. A permanent defense against enemies, even in death and destruction."

"Where are we, though? I don't recognize this place." Tayuya said.

"Yeah, and I've never heard about anything like this being in Hi no Kuni! What's going on?"

"...I told you, welcome to the country's eastern edge. However, I left something else out: welcome to the _western_ edge of the ruins of Uzu no Kuni.

"Uzu no Kuni? That sounds like..."

"Yes, and there's good reason for that. Uzu no Kuni is the nation that housed Uzushiogakure, which was wiped out near the end of the Second War by the combined efforts of Iwagakure, Kumogakure, and Kirigakure. There were no survivors."

"A ninja village that got taken off the map? Did they have powerful clans?" Tayuya asked.

"There was only one in Uzushio, but they were like the Hyuuga or Uchiha: big enough that inter-clan marriages weren't incestuous due to the sheer size of their clan...and they were larger than both of those groups combined."

"Spill the beans!" Naruto said.

"The people that lived in Uzushio were the Uzumaki clan." Jiraiya said, a somber look in his eyes as Naruto locked onto him. "Your mother's family."

"And my father?"

"I'm not allowed to tell you. My sensei passed a law, years back, that said you were to be told on your eighteenth birthday or whenever a sitting Hokage sees fit. The law was broken when you were told about the Kyuubi, and I broke it right now...but I don't think you should know everything just yet. I didn't agree with the mandate, but I thought you deserved to know something about your heritage."

"I'm going to turn eighteen before we're back in Konoha in three years. Why not just tell me now?"

Jiraiya grinned. "There you go, always hungry for more...that's good. The other reason is, you're not strong enough to live outside of his shadow. Now, come on, let's get inside those ruins and through the perimeter defense before we manage to get fried."

The older ninja took off, leaving Naruto and Tayuya behind. The pair shared a knowing look before running after him.

"That son of a bitch knows." Tayuya growled.

"Leave it be...besides, I already know the truth. Whether or not he tells me is grounds to know whether or not I can trust him."

Itachi had been right about him, Naruto knew. He wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice his relationship with one person if it meant that he could protect many more. That was what it meant to be Hokage, wasn't it? The entire village would be his to lead, and he'd learned as a child that good leaders couldn't play favorites.

That having been said, he knew that both the Sandaime and Godaime Hokage had definitely made a favorite out of him. For one, it was because an out-of-control Jinchuriki would have been a catastrophe. For the other, it was because he reminded her of her dead brother, and husband.

No, he decided as he sped up, quickly reaching and then outpacing Jiraiya. When he became Hokage, he wouldn't play favorites.

He ignored the sun-weathered corpses of those who had been struck by the lightning around him, though the bolts never came near to touching him. In spite of the unsheathed sword on his back, he seemed to act the opposite of a lightning rod.

* * *

Just as Jiraiya had said, a woman's corpse was attached to a chakra-siphoning...Naruto didn't have a word for what it was. A dark blue ball, with streaks of white running through it where her hand was fixed, which stood atop a small stone stand. Behind her stood the shattered gates to Uzushiogakure, with the wall visibly cracked or missing pieces in several places.

"Just leave her there." Jiraiya said. "The barrier that her chakra gives this land is enough that we won't be bothered until we're gone."

With a heavy heart, looking at the first other Uzumaki he'd ever seen in the flesh, Naruto followed behind his mentor into the destroyed Uzushiogakure. What he saw horrified him.

He knew it was an illusion. It had to be. Even so, he couldn't look away.

 _Lightning came down with the rain, blood running to mix with water in the streets. Without warning, Doton techniques caused the surrounding buildings to begin crumbling. Children and civilians rushed about in the streets, kunai embedding themselves in the backs of those who sought to flee. Water rose up from outside the village walls, smashing into them and flowing over the top. Enemies from three nations overran the streets of Uzushiogakure, and the screams of the dying were louder than the thunder overhead._

 _"No survivors." An Iwagakure shinobi ordered. "We'll show Konoha what happens when they attack our allies in Amegakure...but we'll do a better job."_

 _"You will do no such thing." A man's voice declared, before a katana was shoved straight through the enemy's heart._

 _The man's red hair rested in a mop, his bushy beard left untamed and wiry. Blood matted his clothing, and his Uzushiogakure headband was scratched all over._

 _"Ha! You think you can win, **Uzukage**? We outnumber your whole force three to one!"_

 _"It's not about victory. It's about survival." The Uzukage's eyes narrowed, taking in his surroundings. "Besides, I've already bought my wife enough time to have escaped. You've made me a very angry man, you know? I was going to be a father. If it's a boy, he'll be named Kaoru. If it's a girl, she'll be named Kushina. Now...face death."_

 _His movements were blurry, cutting through wave after wave of enemies even after he was the last Uzumaki standing._

 _"Ne! Halt!" A newcomer's voice rang out, and Shimura Danzo came into view before the gates with a group of his shadowy forces._

 _"Danzo! Your arrival...how did you know we needed help? No, it doesn't matter. Please, help us win this fight!"_

 _The Uzukage turned around, running off, and never saw the blade of vacuumed wind that took his head off._

 _"Ne...advance." The ruthless order left Danzo's lips, and the triple-alliance between Iwa, Kumo and Kiri began to die en masse to the blades of Konoha's ghostly fighting force._

 _When the rain cleared at last, all that remained were the rubble and bodies that littered the ground. No trace remained of the Uzukage's murderer, or even the bodies of his village's assailants._

The Genjutsu faded, and Naruto sank to his knees, with a shaking Tayuya beside him and Jiraiya hanging his head in front of them both.

"That was your maternal grandfather, Uzumaki Josuke. Father of Uzumaki Kushina, the Nidaime Uzukage. I was in Ame no Kuni at the time, training my own team..." The wistful look in Jiraiya's eyes told the younger ninja that something had happened to that team.

Naruto knew it was irrational to be attached to the dead who had been gone for years before his birth. Before his _mother's_ birth. Even so, this was beyond painful.

He had never known them, would never know them, but they were his family all the same and he had seen them _slaughtered._ He only had one question.

"Who is Danzo?"

"A man who should have been eliminated a long time ago." Jiraiya's expression hardened. "He was a teammate of my sensei, and the second choice for Sandaime Hokage. His ambition is limitless, second only to his twisted sense of loyalty to Konoha. He offers support to Tsunade, but only in vocal amounts...none of his Ne Anbu's boots are ever seen on the ground, and they don't associate with the regular forces. Danzo is their leader, and until he becomes Hokage, they will not bow to the ruler of Konoha."

"Then it won't be an issue if I kill him. Vengeance for my grandfather, if nothing else."

"Danzo...that name rings a bell." Tayuya said, straightening her back. "I think he was one of Orochimaru's partners in Fuinjutsu experiments and Ninjutsu creation. Orochimaru is the one who gave him his replacement arm."

"Then it's not just an arm. Dammit! You're not the only one with a bone to pick against him, Naruto. It's rumored that Danzo was the one who actually ordered the Uchiha Massacre, and if that's true, in addition to working with Orochimaru..." Jiraiya started swearing.

"There's gonna be a lot of people who want his head on a platter." Naruto finished their collective thought process.

"But you can't go out in the open with it...otherwise, he'll run. So the best course of action is to just keep training." Tayuya said.

"Much as I hate it to admit it, she's right. So...time to start! By the time I'm through with you, you'll be too tired to think about revenge."

Jiraiya was right, Naruto admitted to himself. Burying himself in thoughts of revenge would leave him vulnerable to the trap that Sasuke had fallen into; it hadn't mattered to him before, and it shouldn't matter after. If anything, he should be angrier at the ninja who'd done the most killing...but it was war. Kill your enemy, or die.

Danzo's murder of his grandfather hadn't been war, it had been betrayal. That was something more despicable than most nukenin would commit, with the notable exceptions of people like Orochimaru or Itachi...and even then. To arrive nearly to late to aid your ally in a time of war, only to murder them? That was sickeningly cruel, beyond anything Naruto had seen before.

He would throw everything he had into the training. Maybe Jiraiya could earn his trust in ways besides learning about his parents.

* * *

It had been three months since the trio had left Konoha. Naruto sat outside the gates of Uzushio, the small hill allowing him to look out over the sea with a slightly-raised vantage point.

After the first week, he'd started to occasionally come down and talk to the still-warm corpse of the woman who'd died attached to her attack station. While Jiraiya oversaw his clones' work in achieving muscle memory, chakra control, and basic calligraphy, another team of clones was working on restoring the village from its destroyed state. Even though he didn't intend on living in the remnants of the past, he still felt a familial duty to avoid leaving the village in shambles. Once, a building's restoration had revealed a collection of scrolls; Jiraiya had surmised that it was the Uzukage's office building, similar to the Hokage Tower in Konoha.

The discovery that he could retain the memories of his clones, as well as improve his ability slightly for every clone that trained, had been an immense step forward for him.

"So anyway, Shiki-chan, I'm getting better at Fuinjutsu..."

"Has anyone ever told you that it's fuckin' fucked up to talk to dead people like they're here?" Tayuya walked over to him, knowing where to find him in the event that he disappeared.

"Eh, I don't care. Besides, my sensei spends time every day standing at the memorial and talking to his teammates...probably my dad, too. If he does it, it can't be that bad."

"Piss-brain...do you know how infamous Hatake Kakashi is?"

"Uh, no?"

"Iwa and Kumo both have a flee-on-sight issue for him, and Orochimaru was more worried about fighting Kakashi than Jiraiya when the invasion of Konoha took place. He had almost a hundred confirmed kills in the Third Great War, including the last Sanbi Jinchuriki. That was when he was younger than we are, and we aren't even half of his age."

"Tayuya-chan, I have a question: how the fuck do you always know so much about anything?"

"Unlike you, piss-for-brains, I take the time to look through mission dossiers so that I know who I should and shouldn't fuckin' fight."

"Fuck that, I'll fight anyone."

"That attitude's gonna get you killed one day, asshole. The fuck would I do then?"

"Find a safer job, I guess? What kind of question is that?"

"I don't know. Looks like being around you for so long has made me go soft...dammit, what a pain."

"First you kick Shikamaru's ass, now you steal his catchphrases? What's next, are you going to slump over and mutter, _'mendokuse,'_ under your breath like he does every time Ino's being a bitch about something?"

"Not a bad idea, _onii-chan._ Maybe you should take that habit up too."

"Come on, Tayuya-chan. Don't fuck with me like that."

"Would you rather I just fuck you, instead?"

Naruto closed his eyes, frowning as he let a breath out.

"This is why I keep complaining about you to Shiki-chan."

"Are you just that unimaginative, or did you think it would be edgy to name a girl's dead fucking body, 'death?' Because if it's the first one, I'm sorry, but if it's the second one then I'm gonna punch your lights out...hey, what the hell do you mean you complain about me, asshole?"

"Honestly? All your attempts to be lewd. It's pretty obvious you're not doing it because _oh god, you love me,_ and nobody's ever seriously tried to be that way with me. I'm not saying it makes me uncomfortable, that'd be a bullshit double standard given that Ero-sennin peeps in every onsen he can, but..."

"Piss-brain, we _sleep together._ You're my personal space heater at night."

"And that's fine!" He assured her. "I'm used to it, it's not an invasion of space for you to be right next to me. Hell, half the time when you're near me I barely even-"

A quick, unexpected kiss on the cheek was enough to shock Naruto into silence.

"Oh, thank fuck. You stopped talking." Tauyua giggled. "I'm gonna go now, but you and I are gonna talk later, alright?"

"Alright."

Tayuya left, heading back through the gateway, leaving Naruto by himself once again.

"So anyway, Shiki-chan, today is my day off for physical training and my clones are getting run into the ground learning Fuinjutsu calligraphy. Ero-sennin also put a chakra limitation seal on me that he can remotely deactivate, so I can focus on controling my chakra without worrying about wasting any. I think that's cool."

Unconsciously, his eyes kept moving from the seascape before him to the navy-blue ball on his left, "Shiki-chan's" hand still attached.

"I wonder how you work this thing?" Naruto wondered. "Ero-sennin said he thinks the chakra works itself into a loop, keeping your jutsu active as it's running through your body. If that's true, I could probably replace all your chakra with mine. Let's see...just put my hand on it?"

Slowly, with no small amount of anticipation, Naruto reached his hand out and began to send chakra flowing to the orb, but it wasn't until his hand actually touched the defensive station that he knew he'd made a mistake. White-hot pain sent itself through his body, and the Kyuubi screamed at him to pull away, but he couldn't. The magnetism anchoring his hand to that ball was greater than any force Naruto had ever come into contact with.

Slowly, he could hear the demon inside of him less and less, until its voice faded out completely.

 _"Welcome to the Labyrinth."_ A disembodied voice told him. _"Find the exit, and you may leave."_

"Well, that sounds easy enough." Naruto said to himself. "If I find anybody else, can I take them with me?"

 _"There are three others. If they find the exit, they may leave."_

"Do I get a map?"

On the wall before him, a map revealed itself.

"Wow, this is a big-ass fuckin' maze."

The map erased itself, but Naruto had found everything he needed just from those five seconds. He'd spent his childhood navigating the underbelly of Konoha; one puny chakra-based maze was gonna be a walk in the park.

The maze itself was built in a spiral, reminiscent of a whirlpool. True to form, the exit was in the very center of the maze, not at any of the corners. The other three people in the Labyrinth had all started in separate corners, and now it was time to find them.

* * *

The first person he came across was a small redheaded girl.

"Hey." Naruto said. "What's your name?"

"Ah! Get away from me! The maze sent you after me, didn't it!"

He had shadow clones patrolling the maze, disappearing whenever they found dead-ends. Somehow they'd missed this girl, but Naruto knew she was going down a dead-end path.

He had her cornered.

"I'm not here to get you. I want to help you." Naruto called out, sitting down in front of her. "Can you tell me your name?"

"Uzumaki Rei."

"Okay, Rei. My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm stuck in here with you. There's two other people in here besides us. We're gonna find them, and then we're gonna get out of here together. Okay?"

"Okay!" Rei gave a big smile. Naruto didn't know how long she'd been in here, but it had to have been before Uzushio fell.

"You wanna ride on Naruto onii-chan's back?" He smiled back at her.

"Sure! Thanks, onii-chan!"

Just like that, the two were on their way.

* * *

The next person he found was a boy, about the same age as Rei.

"Nii-chan!" She yelled, jumping down from Naruto's back and ran.

"Rei-onee!" The boy yelled back, running toward her, and they met in the middle for a hug.

"Kouga-nii, this is Naruto-onii! He found me, and we're gonna find our way out!"

"Are you two twins?" Naruto laughed.

"Yeah!" Rei said. "He's my little brother!"

"Good to meet you, Kouga. I'm Uzumaki Naruto."

"If Rei-onee trusts you, then I do too! Let's get going, we've spent way too much time in here already!"

"Hey, hold on. Out of curiosity, how old are you two?"

"Eight!" They raised their hands, holding up four fingers on each.

"Okay. Do you know how long you've been in here?"

"Uh..."

"Do you know who the Hokage is?" If he was right, they would say the Sandaime, Sarutobi Hiruzen.

"Um...what's a Hokage?" Rei asked.

"The leader of Konohagakure! You know, Uzushio's big ally! It was formed by the Senju and the Uchiha clans, like, forever ago!"

"The Senju and the Uchiha?" Kouga asked.

"Yeah, do you know who they are?"

"Of course we do!" Rei said, with all the indignance of a child who'd been asked if she knew basic math. "Our cousins are Senju Hashirama and Tobirama, and Uchiha Madara and Izuna!"

"O...okay. Let's get a move on, alright? We don't wanna take up any more time in here than we have to now, huh?

* * *

She'd been killing his clones. He didn't know what to make of that. Now, he stood in front of her, with Rei and Kouga behind him.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"Not a clone this time." He said. "I'm trying to get these two to the exit. Trying to find you, to get _you_ to the exit. You've been going in a circle."

"I meant your name."

"Oh, right, oops...I'm Uzumaki Naruto."

"A blond Uzumaki?" She said, her gaze shifting between him and the twins behind him.

"My dad wasn't one of us. I'm from Konoha."

"How many years has it been, outside?"

"Since the village fell? Thirty-seven."

"Then I've been here for thirty-six...I gave birth to my daughter in Konoha, and came back here. She was left in Mito's care. My name is Uzumaki Oboro, wife of Josuke."

"That makes you my grandmother." Naruto said. "Both of my parents died the night I was born, but my mother was Uzumaki Kushina."

"How?"

"I don't know. I'm a Jinchuriki, though. My father died sealing the Kyuubi into me...I think mom was just a collateral casualty."

"I have lost my husband, I have lost my siblings and parents, I have lost the daughter I never knew...but I have a grandson."

Oboro's facial expression was unreadable, pained and yet somehow elated.

"There's no point in focusing on everything I've lost." She continued. "I'll move forward, with you."

Soon enough, they found the exit, and after making certain that the other three went ahead first, he followed into the white sealing matrix in the center of the Labyrinth.

* * *

The same burning-hot sensation went through him, and the feeling of the Kyuubi in his gut came back gradually.

He was on the ground, looking up at Tayuya and Jiraiya.

"Tayuya-chan, Ero-sennin...how long was I out?"

"Two days."

"You're not the one who should be asking that question, mago-kun." Oboro said, picking herself up off the ground. "That's a question for Rei and Kouga."

Naruto hopped up and looked over to the other side of the Labyrinth-stone, seeing both children.

"Naruto..." Jiraiya began.

"What the hell happened?" Tayuya finished.


	7. The Nature of the Beast

**Continuing this update train, doo-dah, doo-dah, I'll continue updating all the doo-dah day.**

 **We've broken 100 followers, and we're close to 50 favorites! Thanks for your support!**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. draven32: I'll be honest, I toyed with the idea some, but in the end I've decided not to go down that road. Even though it's a thing in the Naruto-verse for huge clans to inter-marry because they're so damn big that it's not incestuous, two people getting it on and having the same last name before marriage gives me the fuckin' willies, whether or not they're actually related. So...yeah. Nix that idea**

 **2\. OneLunchMan: Eh, my brain is good at coming up with random shit that'll happen in fics. The trap is when you get caught in a, "I wanted this to happen, but the way I've written this character up until now means that something else will happen," situation, hence why I'm not writing this with any kind of plan in mind. Truth be told, I feel kinda bad for how I wrote the reveal to them, but maybe I'll get back to that as a plot point later? I don't know. I do enjoy leaving cliffhangers, though. Good to know it kept you waiting!**

 **...speaking of reviews, last chapter only got 3, as opposed to the previous average of about 6 per chapter. Was it just not well-written, or were you guys just less than impressed? Either way, I'll try harder from now on; I won't beg for reviews, but they're the most tangible way to let me know you appreciate the story, so they're always welcome!**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"So you're telling me that I was right in guessing what it was...and those who didn't have permission to use it would be sucked into that maze?"

"If it doesn't recognize the chakra's signature, then yes, it will pull you in. I used it in a last-ditch effort to keep the village from being invaded and ransacked after its destruction." Oboro said.

"But then, why were your body, and Naruto's, still here? Those two," Jiraiya motioned to Rei and Kouga, "didn't have bodies."

"I never cut off my chakra flow for the technique. It's likely that those two didn't use any chakra at all, but because they _have_ chakra, they were more susceptible to its pull."

"Yeah, we can do some really cool stuff!" Kouga said. "Watch this one!"

The twins weaved their hand seals seamlessly, though each one went through different motions, and they pointed their hands out toward the ocean.

With a horrendous roar, flames exploded outward in a cone before lightning shot fort from the center of the vortex. The flaming gyro widened further, and a pressure-jet of water spewed with enough force that Jiraiya and Oboro could cleanly see the electrical current get bisected; that was a feat that only one other technique had accomplished, as far as Jiraiya knew: Hatake Kakashi's _Raikiri,_ the Lightning Blade.

"Ugh...that always makes me hungry." Rei said as the technique finished, a pained look on her face. "Still, that's our favorite area attack. Hashirama-itoko said that one day, we might even be strong enough to beat him and Madara-itoko combined!"

"Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara?" Jiraiya said, his brain filling in the blanks for the only people he'd ever heard of with those names.

"That's what they told me when I found them. They'd never heard of Konoha, or the Hokage." Naruto said.

"Are you saying they've been stuck in there for almost a century? Konoha was formed when Hashirama and Madara finally put everything aside and joined forces. That was more than eighty years ago, and they were almost thirty when that happened!"

"Thirty? No, you must be talking about a different Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara than our cousins! They're two years older than us, so they should be ten years old!" Kouga said.

"Oh boy..." Naruto groaned. "...let me handle this, I'm good with kids."

He took both of them by the hand, wandering off.

"So...you're Jiraiya, all grown up?" Oboro looked at him. "You got tall."

"You know me?"

"You were Hiruzen's student. One of three. You, the Shodaime Hokage's granddaughter, and the one they called White Snake."

"Tsunade is the Hokage now. Orochimaru turned out to be...too dangerous to allow inside Konoha's walls. My generation's Danzo, as it were."

"My condolences, then. When we stood tall, we were proud to not have a single nukenin from our ranks...but the loss or betrayal of a comrade is never something that can be taken easily."

"A pain that we all have to bear." Jiraiya added. "The life of a ninja is a life of loss, and death, and regret. I'm trying to make sure that I don't have any more regrets once I'm gone, and your grandson is one of them. I'm his godfather."

"Then he's in good hands...I hope. You weren't exactly the most studious shinobi, from all I heard."

"War turns you into a quick study. Two wars turns you into an expert."

"A third war?"

"Yeah. Let's get you up to speed."

* * *

"Do you know how long you were in that maze?"

"Uh...it didn't feel like much! Maybe a few hours?" Kouga asked, hopeful.

"No, not even close. It's been almost a hundred years."

"What? No way! You're joking, aren't you! Any day now, the Clan Wars are going to end and we can settle down peacefully, for good! At least, that's what Hashirama and Madara both say."

"I hate to break it to you, but there's no getting around it: Hashirama and Madara are both died about sixty-five years ago."

"Liar! Nobody could kill them!" Rei said, angry and beginning to pout.

"They killed each other." Naruto dropped the words like bombs, watching the shocked and horrified expressions on the twins' faces. "There's a valley between Hi no Kuni and Oto no Kuni that's dedicated as the battleground where they fought each other to the death. We call it the Valley of the End, because it's where they fought their final battle."

"What about Tobirama and Izuna? What happened to them?"

"Senju Tobirama was the Nidaime Hokage, after his brother's death. I've never heard of Uchiha Izuna, so he probably died before the end of the Warring Clans period."

"Are you...are you being serious, Naruto-onii? This isn't a big joke?"

"I like jokes. I like jokes a _lot._ This isn't one of them. I'm from Konohagakure no Sato. The Warring Clans period ended eighty years ago, and it was replaced by the Hidden Village system where groups of ninja from different clans allied in the same land. Think about it...was this village here when you touched that stone?"

"Um...I can't remember. tou-san said he was gonna start building a village here when the wars were over, though!" Kouga said. "Is that what this is? The Uzumaki village?"

"That's what it was. Before I was born, it got destroyed. My mother was born in Konoha after it was wiped out, and Oboro obaa-chan is my grandmother who was stuck in that stone with you two. The four of us are the only Uzumaki left."

"What?" The twins cried out simultaneously.

"I'm sorry. It's true. But hey, if you hadn't gotten stuck in there, you never would have met me! Instead of worrying about what you've lost, think about everything that's still out here! You're kids, you should have fun, not worry about fighting for survival every day!"

"But we need to get more powerful!"

"Then train with me. Three Uzumaki are always stronger than one!"

The two children nodded, their inner turmoil crushed by the elder Uzumaki's charisma. That was just the kind of effect Naruto had on people, and children were especially susceptible. They would likely have doubts and reminisce painfully in the future on all the things they had missed, and he wouldn't be able to protect them from that misery forever, but they deserved the chance to live the lives that they had been given; just because they were born in the past, didn't mean that they would belong to that past.

They had a future, and Naruto was determined not to let the newest additions to his family live with any other road before them...no matter how bad it made him feel to sideline their feelings about having lost everyone they used to know and love. It was clear that they had really cared for Hashirama and Madara.

That thought made Naruto wonder how the Clan Wars, and the founding of Konoha, would have gone if these Uzumaki children had been there for it.

"Hai, Naruto onii-sama!"

"Good."

* * *

"You've managed to clear away a decent section of the rubble." Oboro said, walking around. "The village is empty, and in disrepair, but it's not broken anymore. Thank you."

"Aw, it was nothing. I figured it was the least I could do, out of respect. Anyone else would have done the same." Naruto replied.

"No they wouldn't have." His grandmother remained grateful, if stern. "They would have looted it...like the scrolls you took from the office. But, since you're my grandson, I guess I can overlook it."

Without warning, Naruto enveloped the older woman in a hug.

"I never had a family." He told her. "I lived in the street for fifteen years, all I had was a name that I didn't know the meaning of."

"Poor boy...it's okay now. You have a family, and we aren't going to leave you. I promise."

Bones rattled in the wind, and the pair looked down to see a severed skull roll backward toward its headless corpse. In one hand was a sword they both recognized; Naruto from the Genjutsu, and Oboro from being married to its wielder.

"Josuke..." She looked to Naruto. "...please, excuse me. I'd like to be alone now."

The younger Uzumaki nodded, vanishing in a smooth _shunshin_ that would have been impossible before he'd left Konoha.

It must be a hard thing, he thought, to finally come to face the loss of a family you'd known.

* * *

"I told you we'd talk later, didn't I?" Tayuya had him cornered.

"Keep in mind, it only feels like a few hours for me, okay? I'm sorry. I didn't know what I was-"

She smacked him with her palm, and then on the other cheek on a backhand swing.

"Don't you dare!" She exploded at him. "Don't you _dare_ apologize to me! You stupid son of a bitch, we thought you _died!_ You don't get to apologize!"

"I..."

"No!" There were tears in her eyes. "Stop it!"

"No." His arms reached around, pulling Tayuya close to him while immobilizing her. "I'm not gonna."

"You son of a-"

"You don't get to cry for me. Not until I'm really dead...and you've seen my scars. I can't die."

"That logic is bullshit, and you know it."

"I don't care." Naruto sighed.

"Well, maybe I do. You may not think it, but I actually like you. I think I'm okay with calling you my friend, and you're the first one I've had since I went to Orochimaru. So I'm gonna be fuckin' worried when your stupid ass decides to do some kind of shit that looks like it kills you!"

"I'm sorry." He sank to the floor, carrying her with him, holding onto her as she stopped trying to break herself free. "I'm so, so sorry."

That was when Tayuya finally broke, letting loose the tears she'd been trying to keep in; even if he _wasn't_ dead, she and Jiraiya had thought he was. They stayed like that for a few minutes, holding and being held. Finally, Naruto's grip loosened, and Tayuya was free.

"I'm gonna stay mad about that for a while." She told him, tear-tracks still visibly fresh in her eyes as she looked at him. To her surprise, he looked like he'd silently cried with her.

"You have a right to." He whispered back, so low that even her refined hearing barely picked it up. "But you deserve to know that I really am sorry about what happened. I just...I got curious. It hurt like hell when I touched it, like my hand was gonna get washed off by acid. And that maze was _huge._ About half the size of Konoha. I was being stupid. I know. I've never made a whole lot of smart decisions, I just kind of make due with however I can play to my strengths. That ball, since Rei and Kouga were sucked in there long before the Clan Wars ended, is an endless nightmare unless you've spent time really learning how to study a map...and even then, if you ask the right question, you're fine."

"Sounds like you didn't have that much of a problem anyway, piss-brain." Well, if she was calling him that name again, then she was feeling at least a little bit better.

"Eh, it got better once I found those three in there. Company always makes travelling better."

"Even mine?"

Naruto couldn't tell whether the girl was fishing for a compliment, or genuinely worried about how he saw her.

"Especially yours." He replied. "It's never a bad thing to have a friend along."

His smile came on like it had been cued, lighting up his face and bringing a small grin to hers. Unfortunately, she couldn't stay mad at that face.

"Okay, fine, you win. I fuckin' forgive you, asshole."

He felt like he'd just won the lottery.

* * *

Naruto's training resumed the next day, and he knew that Jiraiya's sadism was his way of venting frustration at him. Still, he was glad for the harder training; it made thinking a little easier when he was focused on doing other things.

His clones were broken up into three groups: Fuinjutsu, Taijutsu, and Ninjutsu. While each of them worked in their assigned areas, and a smaller group of clones continued his restoration efforts, Jiraiya had amplified the pressure of the chakra limitation seal as well as add what he called a, "Slog Seal."

 _"It will make it feel like you're moving through mud, or a strong water current."_ Jiraiya had told him. _"So then, when you take it off, you'll be a whole hell of a lot faster. This is the first level of the seal. When you get used to it and can move like you always do, I'll give you the next level."_

The exercises he went through after that had been put on him were completed very slowly...slow enough that Naruto had been suspicious about whether or not Jiraiya's true motivation was just to be able to write more of his _supposedly_ prize-winning smut novellas.

Lust was a terrible vice; that was the only conclusion he could come to. Wrath, greed and pride were the standard shinobi sins, and envy could also be passed off as reasonable. Lust, gluttony and sloth, though? There weren't many ninja who ascribed to those.

In Naruto's opinion, Jiraiya was a student of all three. Still, the blond had to admit to himself that the older man knew what he was doing. Even though they had only worked on control exercises and non-elemental techniques so far, he already felt like he'd come leaps and bounds ahead of where he'd been. Plus, the _Kage Buki no Jutsu,_ which allowed him to make replicas of his weapons, was a fun area-of-effect attack. Jiraiya had said, however, that they would start elemental techniques in the near future.

It looked like that day was today, a week after his return from the Labyrinth.

He and Tayuya stood with Rei and Kouga, with Jiraiya and Oboro standing in front of their ragtag quartet.

"Alright, moment of truth." Jiraiya said. "Luckily, Naruto, your efforts to clear away debris from the village gave me the chance to find some chakra paper. What that does is tell you your affinities for elemental chakra. For example, my primary affinity is Katon, and I have a secondary affinity for Doton techniques. That means it takes less chakra for me to perform jutsu with those two elements. Some people have an immensely strong affinity for one element and no secondary affinity, but that's less common than having one strong and one weak nature. Every so often, you come across some weird jackass who's got three or more affinities, though that's usually due to having a Kekkei Genkai or being a Jinchuriki. In all of recorded history, though, there have only ever been two people with an affinity for all five elements."

"Who?"

"The Rikudo Sennin, if you believe in his legend, and my sensei...which is the _real_ reason he earned the nickname, 'Shinobi no Kami,' during the First Great War."

"The older a shinobi gets, the deadlier they are, and not many ninja live to their eighties." Oboro added. "When the Clan Wars were at their height, everybody was fair game, because you never knew who could grow up to kill you. When every war starts, ninja of all ages are sent off to the battlefield, and the young are always the first to die. Deprive a village of its elder, stronger shinobi, and you cripple it...slaughter their children, their next generation, and you've finished them."

"The Sandaime's only problem was that he was too old to keep up, physically, with Orochimaru. His chakra reserves were almost as large as an Uzumaki, and he still maintained all his wits, but an old man doesn't have the strength or speed to keep up with someone thirty years younger." Jiraiya added.

"Hey, before you get lost in that train of thought, you said something about chakra paper and elemental affinities. You can get sentimental later!" Naruto said.

"Right, right. Sorry. Anyway, you charge a little bit your chakra into these little slips of paper," the Sannin held one up to exemplify, "and it'll have an effect on the paper that will tell you your affinity. Futon cuts it in half, Katon burns it, Suiton makes it damp, Raiton will leave a scorch mark where you hold it, and Doton will make it crumble into dust."

He handed out a slip of paper to each of the children, and the two older ninja watched the proceedings.

Rei and Kouga's papers both became damp, though Rei's had a blackened mark and Kouga's lit itself on fire, and they showed each other in excitement; those effects had happened simultaneously, leading Jiraiya and Oboro to a strange conclusion: the twins didn't have secondary affinities, but two equally strong elemental natures. While they shared a Suiton affinity, Rei had a Raiton nature and Kouga had a Katon nature.

Tayuya's crumbled, but the dust was wet and blackened. She had a primary Doton affinity, as could be expected from someone born in Iwa no Kuni, with Suiton and Raiton as secondary affinities; that made Jiraiya raise an eyebrow, as it was likely a product of Orochimaru's experiments...or the girl was just that talented, and nobody had bothered to find out.

All eyes were on Naruto, whose paper practically exploded.

"Ah!" He said, throwing the ashes and shaking his hand.

"Geez, kid, I told you to just use a little bit! Here, try again." Jiraiya laughed, handing another piece of chakra paper to his student. Just to be safe, though, he strengthened the seal limiting Naruto's chakra.

Slowly, painfully slowly, the paper began to tear itself across the middle. As its top half burned, Jiraiya could see the scorch mark forming around his fingers as the bottom half became wet. A primary affinity for Futon, with secondary affinities for Katon, Raiton, and Suiton.

It looked like he'd inherited all four of his parents' elemental natures; maybe a side-effect of being a Jinchuriki whose mother was also a Jinchuriki, so his chakra coils had steeped in the Kyuubi's energy from conception? Maybe a byproduct of the Shiki Fuin having been used to seal the Kyuubi, an unintended consequence leaving him to inherit his parents' power? There was no way to tell, really. He would just have to make it work into the boy's training.

"My affinities are a primary for Suiton, and a secondary for Futon." Oboro added. "But I know a few jutsu from all the five basic natures, so I can help all of you a little bit."

"Now that we know what elements to train you in, it's time to really get to making you work for your education." Jiraiya's grin, directed at the older children, promised two of things:

He was going to have a lot of fun with this.

Naruto and Tayuya weren't.


	8. Truths Found in Illusions

**I was so close to getting another day of, "two chapters in twenty-four hours," and honestly I'm a little sad I didn't get it in time. I could have, but that would have cut about 1,000 words, and you guys don't deserve that kind of fic destruction for the sole purpose of sating my ego.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. OneLunchMan: Yeah, I figure that since the timeline is a fucking mess anyway, I may as well bullshit with it a bit more, as you'll see pretty early in this chapter. All I'll say now is, I feel really bad for Tsunade.**

 **And, in all honesty, a completely supportive review means just as much to me as one involving constructive criticism; if you're looking for things to help me build upon, and can't find any, then that means I'm doing a good job. Or, at least, I'd like to think I'm doing a good job.**

 **2\. Winter Arctica: I know, I've never really been able to get into the whole, "Kushina gets resurrected! Yaaaaaaaay!" type of stories. Naruto's lack of genuine parent figures is what sets his character up in canon. His parents are dead, nobody is willing to adopt him, the Sandaime wants to be a good guy but he's only human and he can't spend all of his time with one orphan. Fuck, Jiraiya straight-up ran the hell away from responsibility. You give an orphan a family to connect with, and I guarantee you that you won't see personal change fast enough. I wonder if Naruto will stay dedicated to Konoha _quite_ so doggedly, now that he has real ties to his clan and knows that a certain high-rank official in Konoha betrayed his family?**

 **Also, you're right. I never thought of it in that sense, to be honest. Truth be told, the best option was still to just...keep writing anyway. That's what makes this fic's world go round, after all, isn't it?**

 **3\. draven32: Me too. While, "Naruto remains a clanless orphan," is good plot, it's also _really fucking depressing._ I mean, technically, didn't Naruto marry the heiress of the Hyuuga clan? Neji's bullshit exit kind of only left female next-gen Hyuuga that we know of, so that means either Hiashi kept fucking some chick offscreen until he had a son, or that Naruto is technically next-in-line for Hyuuga clan head. That's some fucked up meta, right there.**

 **As for, "more people to protect," I don't think I'd worry about the twins being able to protect themselves. You'll see.**

 **4\. DragonPony022: Like I've said in earlier ANs, the problem with making Naruto and Tayuya get close to each other (in this fic, at least) is that they both have their own personal walls built up that will require some major event happening to make them break those walls down and really start understanding what it is that they feel for each other. I have some ideas, but I'll probably need a couple more chapters. This was a step towards that, though.**

 **Back again with another late-night chapter release, hot off the press and straight from my brain, it's _Within the Straws I Grasp._ Please enjoy, and as always...**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"My area of expertise is Genjutsu." Tayuya said. "We were all good at something...Sakon and Ukon were our assassination specialists. Kidomaru was a ranged fighter. Jirobo was our healer and our close-quarters expert."

She decided to leave out that Kimimaro, with his Kekkei Genkai, had easily been stronger than all five of them combined. That having been said, she took pride in having been second-strongest of the Sound Four.

"Okay. How would you rank your skills, D to S, from your time under Orochimaru?" Jiraiya asked.

"Taijutsu, C. Ninjutsu, B. Genjutsu, S. I could also summon a trio of Doki demons, but I haven't been able to after you found me, since they were connected to my demonic flute."

It had been four months since the younger ninja had discovered their chakra natures amid Uzushiogakure's ruins, which were looking much less ruinous thanks to Naruto's efforts. In fact, the place was even starting to look livable.

That was impressive.

"Alright. How do you feel about your skills now, including what I've taught you? You move through Fuinjutsu a little quicker than Naruto, even though he's still ahead of you."

"Taijutsu's a B now. Ninjutsu's up to an A. Genjutsu's still an S. Fuinjutsu is...I'll give myself a D there, just because it's still new to me."

"Well, that's an honest assessment. Not bad, either. How's the suppression seal I gave you?"

"Working, far as I can fuckin' tell."

"Good to know. Any pain or discomfort?"

"No, it's fine."

"Excellent."

Tayuya almost laughed. "You sound like a doctor, birdshit-sensei."

Jiraiya sighed, shaking his head.

"I get no respect from you kids."

"Well, maybe that's 'cause you're just not respectable. Ever think about that?"

"I'm one of the Sannin! I fought in two wars! What's not respectable about that?"

"Well, there's the peeping, the smut-writing, the listening in whenever I try to have a private conversation with piss-for-brains over there..."

"Point taken. Still, as far as ninja go, it's hard to get to my level."

"Never said you weren't a respectable ninja. You're just not fuckin' respectable as a man."

"Okay then, hit me with your strongest Genjutsu. I'll show you what I'm made of."

"Are you sure?"

Jiraiya nodded, and Tayuya shook her head. Raising her flute to her lips, she channeled chakra into her lips and fingertips before beginning to play. He let the sound come to him, fully immersing himself in the illusion.

* * *

 _He sat with Tsunade, side-by-side, as she held her infant son._

 _"I can't do this." She said._

 _"Tsunade...please. I know it's hard, I know he's gone, but-"_

 _"But nothing!" Tsunade roared. "This is my decision, not yours!"_

 _The reaction made him cower slightly._

 _"I know, hime. I just wanted you to think-"_

 _"Think about **what,** Jiraiya? Dan is dead! It took me months to move on after Nawaki died. All I have left are you and Orochimaru and sensei! I can't do this, I can't take it!"_

 _The baby began to cry._

 _"I'm...I'm leaving, Jiraiya. It's better for me to be by myself. That way, you won't end up dead too."_

 _"I can't die, hime you kn-"_

 _"Don't. Don't call me that, ever again. I'm not your princess, I'm not this village's princess, I'm nobody's princess. I'm a failure as a shinobi...and I can't just leave him to that life, where he'll die too because he's connected to me and my curse. You take him."_

 _"Me, raise a kid? Are you joking?"_

 _"Oh, so Orochimaru should do it?" The look of consternation on her face told him all he needed to know._

 _"I don't think you should give him up. He deserves the chance to know who his parents were."_

 _"And Dan didn't deserve to die!"_

 _Jiraiya stood up, a glare in his eyes, and Tsunade was confused. She was used to Jiraiya being a braggart, a joker and a man who took himself and his words far too seriously. She wasn't comfortable with being on the receiving end of his anger._

 _"Fine. Give him to me."_

 _Now, all of a sudden, she was reticent to give her son up._

 _"Give him to me."_

 _Wordlessly, as she handed the bundled baby up to him, he looked away from her._

 _"I hope he never finds out who his parents are, because I certainly won't tell him. I hope I never see you again, either, you rotten bitch. What, like running away is going to solve your problems? When Hiruzen-sensei brands you a nukenin, don't come crying to me."_

 _He shut the door gently behind him as he walked out, walking down the hallway._

 _Time sped up._

 _It was the boy's graduation ceremony, and he waited for his team to be called._

 _"Team Seven, under the direction of Jounin-sensei Arashi Jiraiya: Kato Shizune, Uzumaki Kushina, and Namikaze Minato."_

 _He saw, in life again, a boy he'd thought of as the son he'd never had. Raised in a team alongside two other orphans, one of whom was his unknowing cousin._

 _He saw them live again, breathe again._

 _And then, in the Kyuubi attack, he watched as Minato raced through the hand seals of the Shiki Fuin. Kushina, barely clinging to life, watched as her husband gave up his own._

 _"Naruto...my sweet boy...I'm sorry." She said, crying. "This shouldn't have been your burden."_

 _Her chains of chakra held the Kyuubi down, and the grim hand of Death reached out as one with its summoner._

 _Jiraiya watched the fox's chakra tether itself to the newborn boy's navel, and in that moment the world had stopped. Orochimaru bowed his head, turning to look away. Tsunade turned to Jiraiya, looking for the silent confirmation of what she already knew: her son, the child she gave up and never knew, was about to die. He would leave behind a son, her grandchild, who she would never know as family either._

 _She had been gone for the last six years, but had returned at Jiraiya's request in order to help with the birthing process for her unknowing daughter-in-law. By the time she arrived, it had already been far too late._

 _Their shame was palpable. If anyone should have given their lives to stop the beast, it should have been them. They, the Sandaime, **anyone**_ _else. In that second where all the world stood still for Konoha's shinobi, any one of them would have chosen to give their lives so that their Hokage and his wife could live. Two people that strong couldn't just...they couldn't just be gone! Not like that!_

 _That was wishful thinking, however. Jiraiya had seen Minato's hands move, blood for the summoning leaking down to smear on his palms._

 _"His name is Naruto. He is a hero to this village." The light was beginning to leave the Yondaime Hokage's eyes. "Naruto...one day, I hope you and I can meet again, in a better world."_

 _Before his lifeless body could hit the ground, Jiraiya had caught him._

 _"No!" He shouted._

 _Minato had not been his, had never been his, but it didn't matter to the white-haired Sannin._

 _His son was dead._

* * *

When Jiraiya came to, he was laying sideways on the ground.

"...did I fall asleep?"

"No, the Genjutsu passes through you eventually...though I don't need it to hold any longer than a few seconds in order to kill someone once it takes hold of them."

"That was horrific. Living through it once was bad enough."

"Oh, you saw the past? What...what did you see?"

"My son died in my arms on the night the Kyuubi attacked."

The awkward silence that followed would remain unbroken, wind blowing through the grass as the pair neither looked nor spoke to one another. Jiraiya's greatest wound, worse than Orochimaru's betrayal or anything that happened during either of the wars he'd fought in, had just been reopened and salted.

And he'd asked for it.

Tayuya, for her part, didn't feel too bad; it had been more than half a year, and the older ninja was still keeping secrets from Naruto. She'd intentionally made the technique a little more cruel because of that, not that Jiraiya would notice.

Jiraiya was very, very angry. Enraged at his own stupidity and incompetence, in the past and the present, he wandered off to find a place where he could calm down.

Tsunade had been so young...and he'd never liked Dan. The older man had been too suave, with his personality that seemed tailored to making Tsunade fall in love. She was fifteen, he was twenty-six, and she had been smitten like a schoolgirl.

Even his death hadn't been enough to reconcile Jiraiya to the predatory man's memory, and he'd spat on the corpse after Tsunade had left its side.

He had always been so kind...too kind, in all likelihood. Too benevolent. That was the effect that being taught by Sarutobi Hiruzen would have, though. Or, at least, that was the effect he had on Jiraiya. Tsunade had become crippled by the support she was always given, and Orochimaru had always sought for a way to end the suffering of others because of how his parents had died in the end of the First Great War.

Three gentle souls, believing in all the good of the world. That was what they had been. How had they come out like this? Tsunade was a political wreck, Orochimaru had turned from being a medical scientist and a brilliant Ninjutsu master into a man whose fear of death was so severe that he'd developed a jutsu to transfer his soul into another person's body. And Jiraiya himself...a man filled with nothing but regrets for all the lives he couldn't save or salvage, all the people he'd failed, and the weight of Konoha on his shoulders.

In truth, if one of the two remaining Sannin had to take the position of Hokage, then the logical choice would have been Jiraiya. Tsunade had spent her entire life running away from her problems, drowning herself in gambling and alcohol to try filling the void of all the people she'd been made to leave behind. Even now, he doubted that she was over the deaths of her brother and lover. Tsunade was not a woman who was able to achieve acceptance, in the stages of grief.

The Gama-sennin, however, was equally lazy and unwilling. He'd been convinced that becoming Hokage would do Tsunade a lot of good, as well as unite Konoha behind the strongest kunoichi it had ever produced. In the former area, he'd been right. In the latter, however, he'd been amazingly wrong.

The drunk, gambling woman had swayed a lot of hearts to her cause, most of them young or civilian. The older, more experienced ninja in the village had wanted to see Hatake Kakashi sworn in as the Godaime when Jiraiya refused to accept the title. Danzo had also been a relatively popular choice for his accomplishments in all three of the Great Wars that had rocked the Elemental Nations, though many people were also concerned due to his age and his hawkish tendencies towards foreign relations.

There was no leader who could unify Konoha. They would just have to accept that, and move on.

Hashirama and Tobirama had been well-loved by all, and Hashirama had even been greatly respected among the Uchiha for his inclusive policies so as to make sure they weren't left out of village affairs...while Tobirama has been the opposite. Hiruzen had been appointed during the First War, after Tobirama's death in battle, and his skill with jutsu as well as diplomacy made certain that the war ended as quickly as possible. This, included with the length of his monumental reign, had made him Konoha's most memorable Hokage.

Minato had been a bit of an oddball choice, as most of the shinobi had assumed the Sandaime would appoint Orochimaru as his successor. The White Snake hadn't been too bothered, for reasons that became evident several years later...but Minato had distinguished himself as an army of one in the Third War with the _Hiraishin_ technique, an art that combined Ninjutsu and Fuinjutsu with incredibly lethal results. He was popular, and in the years prior to his early death he'd only grown more heroic in the eyes of the village.

If anyone could do it, Jiraiya thought to himself, then it would probably be the student he was training now.

* * *

"You have a summoning contract?" Rei said, incredulous.

"Yeah, with the Toads!" Naruto replied. "The boss, Gamabunta, has fought two Biju: the Ichibi no Tanuki and the Kyuubi no Kitsune!"

"Wow! Naruto-onii, you're so cool!" Kouga said.

"You wanna know what else is cool?" He looked between the two children and Oboro, who was standing farther away. "Watch this."

With very little warning, the _Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu_ came to life, and suddenly the three redheaded Uzumaki were surrounded with more blonde than they'd ever seen in their lives.

"Naruto-mago...how many did you just make?"

"I have no idea, honestly. Ero-sennin still hasn't loosened up this chakra-stopping seal, so I'm operating on like...one percent right now. That just used up most of it."

A thousand? Two thousand? More? Uzumaki had naturally stronger chakra, and deeper reserves, than most other ninja. Looking at this display, though...Naruto had the reserves of at least five Uzumaki. They disappeared, and Naruto was left with a sheepish grin on his face.

Oh, he was _definitely_ her grandson, alright. Every single member of her family had to be able to do some reckless, ridiculous thing that would have left anyone else dead.

"Tell me...do any of you three know what your chakra weapons are?"

"Chakra weapon?" Kouga asked.

"Yeah, I'm lost." Naruto agreed.

"It's something unique to the Uzumaki clan." Oboro said. "So I'm not surprised you didn't know, since nobody would have been able to teach you. Focus your chakra into your hands, and then let it shape itself. Rei, Kouga, you two first."

The twins did as instructed, until the chakra was visible around their hands.

"Let go."

A pair of katar formed in Rei's hands. The weapons, collectively billed as, "punching daggers," by most weapons merchants, were designed to fit over the fingers like brass knuckles, and operate as such, with the only difference being a blade that extended outward.

Kouga, on the other hand, had bladed gauntlets form around his hands. The metal was ribbed, every rise and fall in the gauntlets visibly razor-sharp. A punch from either hand would likely shred right through anything that wasn't samurai armor.

"Naruto, your turn."

"Time to experiment, then." Naruto's voice had an edge to it as he began to channel two different chakras. In his right hand, the flame-red chakra of the Kyuubi. In his left, the chakra that was his own.

In his right hand, the falx that had been made for him appeared. In his left, a chain struck outward until it hit the ground, though Naruto made a path with his eyes that it followed.

"You're its Jinchuriki, then." Oboro said, looking at the sword in Naruto's hand, unsealed to its full size: the blade was four feet long from base to top, and the scythe-like curve that the blade followed was almost two feet long. Its blood channel was roughly carved, seemingly dug out by shoving a screwdriver into the middle of it. The metal was shaped crudely, and looked as though it had been washed by dripping acid down its width. The blade's edge was on the inside of it, its hilt had no guard on it, and the intention was clearly to swing it like an axe or lop off an enemy's head by pulling it backwards. The metalwork in Naruto's hand was a monstrous sword.

No...it wasn't _really_ a sword, Oboro thought to herself. It was too big, too thick, too jagged and too curved. It was more like a slab of metal.

It was something the Jie clan could have made, but they had all been slain in the Second War. Even if it had been made by a survivor, they would have needed a raw concentration of the Kyuubi's chakra.

"Hey, it worked!" Naruto grinned. "And yeah, I am. Got the Shiki Fuin on me to prove it, too."

"Oboro obaa-chan...what's a Jinchuriki?" Kouga asked.

* * *

Naruto and Jiraiya wandered off the beaten path of Uzushiogakure, and the blond assumed that this must have been one of the village's training grounds.

"I think you're ready for a real spar against me." Jiraiya said.

"Really?"

"Yeah, really. I won't be going completely all-out on you, and you should avoid using the Kyuubi's chakra, but I think it's about time I took the kid gloves off. Sound good to you?"

"Oh, yeah. Get ready for me to grind your ass into the dirt, Ero-sennin!"

"You're still thirty years too young, brat. I'm gonna enjoy mopping the floor with your face."

"Bring it on!"

The teacher-and-student duo were being watched by the other four members of their group, but neither of them cared enough to notice. It was time for a genuine test of wills between the two, to see just how far Naruto had come in the last seven months.


	9. Rage-Fueled Gambit

**Almost fuckin' made it to 2 chapters in a day again...I like this pace, even though I know I won't be able to keep it up forever.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. Gundaago: I know I PM'd you about this, but thanks again for pointing out that error. I went back and edited it.**

 **2\. draven32: Yeah, that's the idea. Though, as displayed in that last chapter, not all of them are chains. If anything, it serves as proof that Naruto is his mother's son.**

 **3\. gunslinger20121: I feel you. As a reader, I _hate_ cliffhangers. As a writer, however...**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"So...how do you want to start this?" The forest around them gave ample room to hide, as well as mimicking their home territory.

Jiraiya made a few hand seals, and Naruto felt the familiar buzz of chakra return to his system; the limiter on his chakra had been released. Momentarily, both levels of the Slog Seal currently on him had been let go as well. He was at full strength, and speed.

"Go nuts, kid." The older man grinned.

Suddenly, he was surrounded by clones advancing toward him. Before Jiraiya could react, some of the basic clones phased through him and a couple of the _Kage Bunshin_ managed to knock him up into the air.

Naruto's control had gotten good enough that he could mass-produce generic, illusory clones just as well as shadow clones.

"Futon: Teikiatsu!" Naruto called out, his clones vanishing without dispelling. In the few seconds that it took Jiraiya to cast the defensive _Doton: Doheki no Jutsu_ in order to protect himself, the blond original was gone as well.

Once the cyclone finished grinding into the wall, and Jiraiya saw the lack of neon-yellow hair around him, he grinned; the hunt was on, and Naruto's stealth was well-renowned in Konoha. The boy could evade Anbu search teams with ease, he had a preternatural gift for finding shortcuts and pulling pranks.

That last one hit home without warning when he felt a draft between his legs, an orange jacket darting off to either side of him and his pants around his feet.

Imitating a technique he'd seen used by Sunagakure's puppet masters, Jiraiya extended chakra strings from his fingers and pulled the clothes back up.

When the paint-bomb dropped from above his head, Jiraiya batted it into the trees, splattering bark with fluorescent pink dye.

"You can't treat it like a game, Naruto." He said, feeling eyes on him from every direction.

"I'll do whatever I want." Naruto said, walking out.

"You're just a clone. Where's the real one?"

"No, I am the real one. Maybe. At least, I'm real right now, aren't I? Besides, I'm trying to show off all my escape plans. Pranking you is just a fun bonus. Jutsu are cool, but it's _how_ you use them that makes them cooler." Even having said that, Naruto turned himself around and shook his rear, mocking the Sannin for his inability to land a hit.

When Jiraiya swung, however, Naruto's own _Doheki_ technique rose up. While the blond boy had no affinity for Doton techniques, Jiraiya had still thought it would be important to make sure he knew them, in order to counter enemy Futon jutsu in the future. Now, with his right arm stuck in the wall and unable to be yanked out, he wondered if that decision had been a little premature. Using _Kage Bunshin_ to train in jutsu almost felt like cheating, but he'd made a promise to himself that he would make Naruto the best ninja that boy could be.

As a clone came in on his left side, aiming to hit him in the legs, he hopped up...only to get plowed in the chest by another one from the opposite side.

"Raiton: Raigen'ya!" Naruto said, the Raiton chakra causing his own Doton technique to crumble while it shocked Jiraiya's arm into numbness. Once again, when the dust settled, there was a distinct lack of blond teenage boys surrounding him.

This wasn't Naruto the ninja; it wasn't the Naruto who'd been seen in the Chunin exams, the invasion of Konoha, or even the mission to retrieve Sasuke. This was the Naruto who had grown up on the streets of the slums, kicking empty soda cans around to play soccer and always looking for the better exit when he stole something that he wanted. This was the Naruto who'd painted the Hokage Monument in broad daylight, and gotten away before being caught.

This was Naruto, in his element, at his best.

"Finally time for me to get started, I think. You've had your fun, kid, but this is where my show starts! Katon: Enkai no Taihou!" Jiraiya hopped up, fire dropping from his open mouth to touch the ground, and that was when the real Naruto knew it was time to get serious. Waiting in the treeline, he felt a surge of chakra come back as the ground was crushed by the force of the "Party Cannon" technique, his clones dispelling as the wave of flames reached them.

He came out of hiding, landing on the ground without a sound behind Jiraiya, and sent chakra chains through the ground in front of the man. As Jiraiya jumped backward to avoid the blow, Naruto swung with the back of the falx to knock his teacher out.

One _kawarimi_ later, the Sannin's body replaced with a log, Naruto spun backward and blocked a shot from Jiraiya's kunai.

"I appreciate the thought, but you don't need to hold back with me. If you actually manage to kill me, then I've taught you enough."

The blade spun around in Naruto's hand as he reversed his grip on the handle, ready to wield it as it was intended. His index finger rested just below the top of the handle, where the leather no longer covered it. Though the sword didn't technically have a guard, the metal was shaped to curve in such a way that the blade's edge stuck out an inch past where his fingers rested, which gave the illusion of one.

Naruto swung, and the kunai Jiraiya blocked with got a deep gouge in it for his trouble, almost all the way through. Had the tip hit, and not the length of the blade, then the smaller knife would likely have been struck from Jiraiya's hand, or shattered completely.

Mentally noting that he needed to thank Higurashi, Naruto grinned before jumping back.

Two of his shadow clones came out as they were cast, one vanishing with a _shunshin_ as the real Naruto charged forward. The pair of shuriken Jiraiya threw at him didn't even phase the blond, letting them tag him in the gut as he prepared to crash into Jiraiya with a killing blow. When he did, however, the man burst into smoke; it has been a shadow clone.

"When you used the _kawarimi._ " Naruto realized, rapidly-healing skin causing the shuriken to fall out of his intestines. "That's when you made the clone and hid. God, what a bait-and-switch. You complain about me using clones, and then you start? Hypocrite."

"You and I are one and the same. What do you think you're doing right now, complaining about the only clone I've made so far?"

"You and I are nothing alike." There was steel in Naruto's voice, and Jiraiya could tell that he'd touched a nerve. "Now fight me for real, this time. No more clones from either of us. No weapons. I'm gonna take you down with nothing but Ninjutsu."

"Big talk. You've got a lot of chakra, but not many jutsu...oh well. Go ahead and try."

"Katon: Goukyaku no Jutsu!"

The ball was three times as tall as Jiraiya, and the flames had barely left Naruto's lips as his hands went through memorized seals.

"Futon: Fujin-ken!"

The large, focused column of wind struck his Grand Fireball, almost mimicking a second Uchiha technique, the _Housenka no Jutsu._ Unlike the Phoenix-Fire, however, his technique was a bit more powerful...and terrain-consuming.

"Doton: Yomi Numa!" Jiraiya called out one of his signature Doton techniques; the Underworld Swamp ran deep, and as Naruto cast his second _Raigen'ya_ , the Lightning Field technique, Jiraiya prepared his next attack.

"Suiton: Mizu Dangan!" The aptly named Water Bullet shot from Jiraiya's palm, splashing the ground in front of Naruto and wetting him enough that his own Raiton technique rebounded to strike him. "Had enough yet?"

"Not even close. You know, watching Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke perform it so many times, I couldn't help but watch their hands..."

Monkey. Dragon. Rat. Bird. Ox. Snake. Dog. Tiger. Monkey. The sound emanating from Naruto's hand was not the chirping of a thousand songbirds, it was the cawing laughter of a thousand crows.

"Raiton: Chidori." Even though his arm was nearly two feet above the ground, a line dug itself into the ground wherever it moved. "Took him long enough."

Naruto's last shadow clone saluted, vanishing in a puff of smoke.

 _Gonna need your help here, Kyuubi._ He communicated, feeling its corrosive chakra take hold of his left arm while lightning encased his right.

"I remember when that technique was invented, Naruto. I know its weakness." Jiraiya said, the smile gone from his face as he looked around himself. Naruto's big talk and combination technique, even the countering of his _Yomi Numa,_ had all been a decoy that he'd failed to notice. That clone had wrapped garrote ninja wire, likely a spoil of cleaning through Uzushio's rubble, around a very tight ring of trees. He hadn't even seen the clone; another testament to Naruto's stealth prowess.

"Maybe." Naruto said, left eye becoming red as he gave into his rage. "But you haven't seen what I've been practicing on my own, with this or anything else I've done."

Naruto drew out eight kunai, two between each finger on his left hand. Every one had the kanji for, "Teleport," brush-painted onto its surface. Bastardized as it might have been, Jiraiya remembered what that technique was capable of. Namikaze Minato had torn through a whole battlefield, practically by himself, with the Hiraishin. On eight separate tree trunks around them, a kunai was buried nearly to the ring after being thrown.

"You shouldn't keep secrets from me." The other eye was claimed, demonic red shining in place of Naruto's normal blue. **"Or else I'll get _really_ mad. This is the true Flying Thunder God."**

No longer intent on wasting time, Naruto ran forward, but he was too fast to redirect himself as Jiraiya moved out of the way of his strike. The man's counter-attack proved useless, however, as Naruto willingly lost control of his left arm to the Kyuubi. It broke backwards at the elbow, accompanied by a sickening crack that made Rei and Kouga queasy from their vantage point. Catching the hand-chop meant to knock him out, the blond was gone without any warning. The sound of Naruto's Chidori was a giveaway, however, and Jiraiya turned around to see Naruto moving in to attack from behind him, with his left arm healed and in its normal place.

Once again, the technique's tunnel vision gave Jiraiya time to escape, and Naruto's inability to redirect in midair made him crash into the ground. Springing up by his hands before he lost all of his momentum, he vanished again, this time coming at his mentor from the side. Missing for the third time, Naruto's frustration got the best of him.

In truth, all of those kunai were clones with strong _henge_ placed over them, and every time he vanished was nothing more than a _kawarimi_ with that disguised clone. Of course, he had been trying to replicate his father's signature jutsu, but all his efforts had proven fruitless thus far. They might never turn out to work, and that was an eventuality he was prepared for...still, the look on Jiraiya's face had been nothing short of priceless.

He paid no mind to his right arm, though blood was starting to leak profusely as the lightning and Biju chakra combined to peel and char his skin.

One last charge had Jiraiya backed against two walls, leaving him with only the option to jump in order to evade the attack, which gave him the perfect vantage point to watch as Naruto did possibly the stupidest thing he'd ever seen.

He shoved the Chidori through his own arm, the Kyuubi's chakra keeping it tethered like a flail to its handle, and directed it to grab ahold of Jiraiya's shirt before slamming him into the razor-wire behind him.

 **"Tell me why."** Naruto ordered. **"Tell me why! Why did they do it, why did you try to keep it a secret from me? What the fuck kind of good could come out of that!"**

"A...hahahaha..." Jiraiya was laughing from a mix of irony and remembrance, feeling the wires cut into his back and legs. "...he really hated that I never told him who his parents were."

The white-haired Sannin passed out, and Naruto's severed arm threw him into the ground as hard as he could. Even though he wanted to cut loose, he reined the Kyuubi's chakra back in as his arm reattached itself and he stopped channeling chakra into his Chidori.

"Getting in a chakra-level pissing contest with a Jinchuriki...god, Tsunade obaa-chan was right, you really are stupid."

His kunai- _henge_ 'd clones all returned to normal, and one tree-walked until it was over the garrote fence before beginning to unwind it.

Though he couldn't sense where they were, he called out to his watchers anyway.

"You don't have to pretend like you aren't there...he's going to need someone to take care of those cuts."

* * *

"What were you thinking?" Tayuya wasn't angry; she was concerned. Even her tone was questioning, not the commanding anger that he was used to after something like this.

"I was pissed. Nothing I was doing was working, and even though he doesn't know I already know...he's still keeping my dad a secret from me."

"Naruto, the idea wasn't to go full-tilt! He's one of Konoha's most powerful ninja, he just-" Tayuya took a moment to breathe, slowing herself. "It was just to see how far you'd come and figure out how much else he needed to teach you, I think."

"Then he shouldn't have worded it the way he did, like his victory was a sure thing." Naruto replied, still a little angry. "He gave me no restrictions, like it wouldn't matter that I'm technically the most dangerous person in Konoha since I can voluntarily lose control to the Kyuubi if I want to. I don't, I won't, but...I could."

"Naruto..." She understood. Fighting against a cocky opponent could be infuriating, particularly when they were strong enough to back it up.

"I know, it's stupid. I'm stupid. It's one of my less endearing traits." He laughed derisively at that. "You know, I think I liked it better before I was in the academy and became a ninja, when everybody was out for my blood. At least they were honest."

He laughed again.

"Naruto, stop it."

"Oh, god, here we go. What's next, the-"

He doubled over, her fist deep in his gut.

"-punch."

Naruto sat back up, head against the wall as he looked at the sky.

"You really need to watch what you fuckin' say, piss-brain." Tayuya continued. "You got to work out how you felt with birdshit-sensei, does that mean I get to pummel you into next week? He's the only one who has conflicted feelings about you."

Naruto still wouldn't meet her gaze, even as she kept talking.

"The twins think of you like an older brother and a leader. Oboro-san is your _grandmother._ And I..." She trailed off.

"You?" He watched a particularly interesting cloud pass by. Maybe Shikamaru had been right, this was pretty therapeutic.

"I keep trying to tell you, or show you, that I care. And you never do anything about it."

At that, he closed his eyes and smiled.

"Yeah, I know. It's bad of me, and it's not like I can't help it, but...how do I explain it? It's not that I don't have any attachment to you. We've known each other, lived with each other, for more than seven months, now, right?" He waited for her agreement to continue.

"Yeah."

"Yeah. So that's not the issue. The problem is, I have a real shitty history with getting attached to people. I gave up the chance of having a home so that Ten-chan could have one. I chased after Sakura for years, against better judgement, even though there was no way in hell she'd ever look at me when Sasuke was an option. I can't tell you how many times she beat me into the ground just for talking to her...at least, until I got stronger than her. Sasuke, honestly, is probably my best friend. You've seen the holes he put in my chest."

"So you're scared of what'll happen to you if you try to get close to anyone else?"

When he opened his eyes again, he looked at her.

"I'm not gonna stop us doing what we've been doing, though. I've gotten too used to being around you. Besides...I'm not telling you no. All I'm saying is that I need to deal with my own issues first, before I can really think about letting someone else in."

"Yeah, I gotcha." She sat down next to him.

"You're not upset?"

"I might be, just a little bit, but I think you're right. I haven't really tried to deal with everything that's fucked up in my head from when I was still in Oto. You were...not a _distraction,_ I guess, but it's like-"

"You were trying to avoid doing something you really didn't want to do. I get that, it's fine."

He remembered Zabuza's words: _"In this world, people are either tools or wielders. That boy is my weapon, and I will use him until he breaks."_

If he was a tool that Tayuya needed to use in order to heal herself, then by the Kiri-nukenin's definition he would either be used, or he would use her in turn. He wasn't sure if he was comfortable with that line of thinking.

The clouds passed by overhead, leaving the sun to shine on in their wake.


	10. The Road to Kiri

**Two chapters in a day, almost inside of twelve hours. Maybe I'm going too fast? Either way, I'm gonna wind back a little bit for the rest of the day and play some Fallout. Always more to do in that series.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. SSJ3 Kyuubi Gohan: I know, I'm kind of surprising myself too. With most of my other fics it's taken me upwards of a week, sometimes even months, to pump out chapters with lower word counts than these. I started this fic out of a sense of writer's block with _As Long as the Raven Flies,_ and I've just kept going. I'll try to give warning if I'm not able to get a chapter out in the pace I've been setting.**

 **2\. draven32: Canon Naruto is...honestly, it's about as bad as DBZ, which I mean in only one regard: it's a full-blown escalation of power that doesn't know how to stop itself. It ends the same way every time, with one or two signature techniques bandied about like we haven't seen them a million times before.**

 **3\. OneLunchMan: No matter how long it takes, the cookie will crumble. That's about as much as I can promise you here.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"Sorry." Jiraiya gave the word as a peace offering. He stood a few feet away from Naruto, who was repeatedly hitting a wooden pole in front of him.

"I'm not." Naruto's glare was cold, the scarring around his left arm a reminder of how far he was willing to go in order to win. "You deserved that."

"Yeah, I didn't expect you to try that hard." Jiraiya frowned, knowing that his own attitude was likely to blame for the viciousness Naruto had displayed in the latter portion of their fight. He had a five-pointed, if misshapen, star that was carved into his chest from where the blond's severed arm had grabbed ahold of him, the burn-scar a physical reminder to never underestimate the most unpredictable ninja that Konoha had ever produced.

Naruto could see the other man in his peripheral vision, arms folded and a neutral expression on his face; that was the look he had when he was trying to hide something.

"Say what's on your mind, Ero-sennin."

"How did you know about it?"

"Oh, god, let me get a list." Of course, he couldn't say that someone had told him. Kakashi had been very up-front about the fact that passing the knowledge on to Naruto would be grounds for the Sharingan-wielder's execution.

"How about the fact that I look just like him? Maybe the fact that the Shodaime's wife was an Uzumaki and one of the Kyuubi's previous Jinchuriki, and I'm a Jinchuriki, so it stood to reason that the Yondaime Hokage's Uzushio-born wife might have been the missing Jinchuriki between us? You taught him, he taught Kakashi, and Kakashi taught me. Fuck, his face was _on the side of a goddamn mountain,_ and nobody connected the dots whenever they saw me? Oh, and you expect me to believe some bullshit mandate that the Sandaime made because he was afraid of enemy taking action against us for things that happened during _a war?_ People die during war! People kill other people during war! That's what war is! When the war is over, you say, 'well it fucking sucks that all these people are dead, but there's not really much else we can do about it,' and you _move the fuck on._ Individual grudges only mean something if you're willing to circumvent your Kage and become a nukenin over it, which most people aren't!"

Something told Jiraiya that the line of thinking in Naruto's brain hadn't gone on in his sensei's, though the short-lived war with Kumo after the Kyuubi attack which resulted in the Sandaime Raikage's death was evidence enough that Naruto's thought process wasn't always true.

"And also, one last thing." Naruto continued. "I know that all married couples have their names put next to one another on the memorial stone, and I doubt that Uzumaki Kushina was married to Sarutobi Biwako."

Jiraiya chuckled a little at that, and felt the tension between the two of them lighten up a little bit.

"Yeah...I actually taught your mother, too. And Shizune."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Shizune used to be a really big crybaby, always worried about what her uncle Dan would think looking down on her from heaven. She's just as talented as your parents were, but...she hated killing. I didn't want her kindness to get destroyed by the war, so I signed the release form saying that my team would be dissolved and that Shizune would begin her medical training."

"How'd she end up with Tsunade?"

"On the night of the Kyuubi attack, we were all holding a line of defense...and we watched your parents give their lives to defeat it. There were a lot of regrets that night, but Shizune was probably the worst of us. Her two best friends had just died. All three of them were clanless kids who grew up in the same orphanage, and went through the academy together, and got put on a team together. She couldn't believe they were dead, and she went into a three-day coma from chakra exhaustion trying to heal them. After that, she decided that she couldn't stay...so my sensei decided to let her make her way to Tsunade, thinking that they might be able to do some good for each other."

"Hiruzen-jiji was a good man."

"Better than most people I've known." Jiraiya agreed. "Say...what do you know about Kirigakure?"

"I met a couple nukenin from there, once. Momochi Zabuza and his assistant, a boy named Haku."

"Then you know about the bloodline purges?"

Naruto nodded.

"Well, Kiri is actually in the middle of a civil war right now. The Mizukage is winning pretty handily, since most of the village is too afraid of him to stand up to him, but there's a resistance fighting back. One of my informants is part of that resistance. If you're interested, we can leave Uzushio at any time and go to fight with them."

"Have you talked to the others?"

"Only Oboro. She's not excited at the prospect of sending you off to war, but she thought it would do you a lot more good than staying in an empty village."

"Well, if I'm going anywhere, then you know Tayuya-chan will be too. And it'll be a hard sell to just leave the twins behind, even if Oboro obaa-chan stays with them."

"That's true, but...even though they were born during the Warring Clans period, it would make me uncomfortable to make kids that young fight."

They had turned nine, according to them, about a month and a half ago. Though they accepted the lessons they were given, as battlefield combat was all Jiraiya and Oboro had taught them so far, they were frustrated with the fact that they weren't getting the same treatment as Naruto and Tayuya.

 _"When Hashirama-itoko and Madara-itoko were nine, they had already been fighting in the wars for two years! Tou-san never let us, though. We wanted to impress him enough that he let us on the battlefield!"_

They were insistent that yes, they were _much_ stronger than they looked, and they could _probably_ manage to beat anybody they came across if they felt like it. Unfortunately, no, they couldn't exactly _prove_ how much stronger they were than they looked, nor could they provide the names of anyone who they'd beaten.

That meant, much to their displeasure, that they were relegated to practical learning...not battlefield application.

"Alright, I'll tell them." Naruto said. "One last question...I've never heard of the Namikaze. How'd he come up with that?"

"Oh, that? His chakra natures were Futon and Suiton. Even though his technique was called the Hiraishin, it was actually a combination of Futon chakra and high-level Fuinjutsu, along with the Senjutsu techniques I'll teach you before we're back in Konoha. Also, his nickname as the Kiiro Senko was from his hair, and people associate yellow with Raiton, so the name stuck."

Well, that was one mystery solved.

* * *

"So...wait. You, and me, and birdshit-sensei. The three of us. We're going to go into live territory and we're going to help the _losing side._ I'm getting this correctly? If we fuck up, you know how bad Konoha's head is gonna be on the chopping block with Kiri?"

Naruto didn't know exactly when Tayuya had started treating herself like she was a Konoha kunoichi, but he liked it.

"Yeah, but it's no fun to pick the winning team. Root for the underdog, all that jazz. Besides, if we do it right and the rebels win, do you know how good we'll get in with their new regime? That kind of stuff just isn't forgotten."

"Right, like Uzushio's partnership and close ties with Konoha." She rolled her eyes to one side, in an _oh right, that,_ sort of gesture.

"Fuck you. Besides, Kiri is a major nation."

"I've been ready and waiting for _months_ now, piss-brain. And...fuck, whatever. Go ahead and count me in. Not like I can trust you to watch your own ass."

"You stare at my ass?"

"I mean...statistically, somebody's got to. Might as well be me."

"Goddammit. You met Ino once, and she turned you into a pervert."

"Shithead, you really must be as stupid as you say you are. Who's the one that you've had teaching you all kinds of shit? What the fuck is your name for him?"

The wheels in Naruto's brain kept turning, until they finally stopped clicking into place.

"Ero-sennin."

"What does he do in his free time?"

"Write terrible smut. Wait a second...are you saying that traveling with me and Ero-sennin turned you into a perv?"

"I mean, waking up with your ass on my crotch, or your dick on my ass, didn't exactly hurt any. Don't even fucking pretend you're not the one trying to cuddle me in your sleep."

"Oh, yeah, like you didn't condition me for it by using my back as a makeshift kotatsu every night for two months."

For a ninja that claimed to be as stupid as Naruto did, the boy certainly had a way of coming up with excellent points for his arguments.

"Anyway, though, I'll let Ero-sennin know you said yes."

* * *

"Naruto-onii, what do you mean you'll be disappearing for a while?" Rei looked heartbroken.

"Ero-sennin, Tayuya-chan and I, are gonna be going to Mizu no Kuni for a little bit. Don't worry, just stay here with Oboro obaa-chan and keep learning everything you can! Maybe then you'll be able to beat me!" The redheaded woman nodded, having already agreed to the plan.

"But, Naruto-onii...we don't wanna be strong enough to beat you!" Kouga said, surprising the blond.

"Then why are you training?"

"To protect you and Oboro okaa-san!" Rei said, and both of the twins gave the biggest smiles they could. "What kind of clan head doesn't have guards?"

The phrase, "clan head," made Naruto's head spin.

"Me? Not Oboro obaa-chan?"

Though the woman was only in her late twenties, physically, she had crushed the reflexive idea that he called her that as an insult; besides, he was her _mago,_ her first and only grandson. That alone was reason enough to allow him to refer to her so casually. While the twins were like her own children, despite the fact that they were chronologically far older than her, she treated Naruto almost as if he were an adult of equal standing with her.

"No, Naruto." She said. "I was married to him. It wouldn't be my place to take the position. All the Uzumaki I knew are dead, and their spirits belong to the village. I can't leave this place. But you...you have a home in Konoha. You have people to go back to, people to fight for in flesh, not just memory. You can rebuild the foundations of our clan there, and leave Uzushio's memory to the dead it belongs to."

"Uzushio is just buildings." Naruto countered. "When you've stripped all the equipment and stored it away, when the village's Forbidden Scroll is gone, and when no people are left...buildings. Memories. But the soul of the Uzumaki rests in those of us who are still alive. Each of us carries the hopes and dreams of all the Uzumaki who got us to this point."

He thought of his mother, sacrificing her life to help her husband seal the Kyuubi away inside of a boy they couldn't have known for more than a couple hours.

For the good of the village, and the love of a son, they had given him the greatest power in the world: a Biju, sealed in his stomach. It had made him feared and hated in Konoha, but it had given him the strength to stand and live on his own. For Naruto, there were no gods and no masters; only the knowledge that his parents did the best they could with what they had, and the idea that he could follow in his father's footsteps.

"Well said." Oboro smiled. "And exactly the reason why I decided to let it fall to you to be the new clan head."

On the one hand, he didn't feel old enough to actually be a clan head. When he thought of the ones he knew in Konoha, all of them were in their mid-twenties or older; he was still a decade behind them all. On the other hand, he'd never known enough Uzumaki for there to have been a clan of them.

That second thought made him smile.

"Anything else?"

"Before you leave, I want to teach you the contents of the Forbidden Scroll. They're your techniques...or at least, they will be when you formally become our clan head. Knowing your aptitude for learning, it shouldn't take more than a couple days. And you two," she looked at the twins, giving a fake glare, "aren't allowed to know any of them!"

"Aw!" They both pouted. "Okaa-san, that means you have to train us extra special while Naruto-onii isn't here!"

"Yes, children, I know." She smiled. "Now, mago-kun...it's time for you and I to get to work."

Naruto's smile matched hers. There was one other thing he'd need to take before he left, if for no other reason than paying homage to his lost family, but he could get that later.

* * *

"My informant will be coming by boat, but we should probably water-walk out to somewhere that it won't be split apart by the lightning around the village."

"Water-walk on the ocean? Are you crazy?" Tayuya questioned him.

"No, but he is." Jiraiya pointed at Naruto. "When he makes shadow clones, each one gets an equal portion of his chakra, and his reserves are beyond massive. A clone can carry me, and he can carry you."

"That sounds a little more like abusing my ability to expend chakra at will, rather than a plan. Whatever, I'll do it."

A single _Kage Bunshin_ appeared, picking up Jiraiya and blasting off into the water as the Sannin directed.

"Your turn, Tayuya-chan."

Once he had her riding piggyback, he took off.

After almost an hour of racing along the waves, they made their way to a small strip of an island where they could rest. Naruto's clone dispersed, and from there it was a waiting game for the boat to arrive.

They didn't have to wait long; while it wasn't moving incredibly quickly, the boat appeared on the horizon within fifteen minutes.

"Wait a minute, is that...no, never mind, it can't be." Naruto said, squinting as he tried to make out who was steering the small ship.

"You might be surprised." Jiraiya said, the boat getting closer. Mist began to surround them, and that was when Naruto knew for certain.

 _ **"There are eight targets..."**_ A voice emanated from all around them, and Naruto grinned. _**"Throat. Spine. Lungs. Liver. Jugular vein. Subclavian artery. Kidney. Heart. All too many choices, and not enough to go around. So tell me, gaki, which one should I strike first?"**_

"Good to see you too, you browless wonder. How's Haku?"

"I'm doing well, Naruto-san." The masked hunter said, though the mist kept them from seeing him.

As soon as it had appeared, the mist vanished, showing a beached ship and the two Kiri-nukenin.

"You know, when Jiraiya said that he was bringing help with him, I didn't expect that you would be the help." Zabuza said, armor-tape covering his throat and lower face. "I really hope you've improved since the last time we met, because those simple tricks won't be enough to make it against the Kirigakure elite. The Mizukage's highest ranks have been crippled thanks to our secession and a few well-placed kills on my part, but the rank-and-file ninja still remember our village's reputation as the _Jakiri._ They won't hold back on you, so all that playing nice you did on the bridge with Haku won't make it."

"Don't worry about me. Didn't you already fail to assassinate the Mizukage once?"

"Yeah, and that attack is the one that set off the rebellion. If I'd had Haku with me before I tried to kill him, I might have succeeded."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Regrets can sit in the fuckin' past." Tayuya said. "Don't we need to keep going?"

"Who's your girl, gaki? I like her. Much better than the pink one."

"I'm not-"

"He's just teasing." Haku said, removing his mask.

"Geez, Haku, you _really_ need to get a scar or something." Naruto said, looking at the oinin's effeminate face. "Everybody's going to keep thinking you're a girl, and your voice doesn't help."

"You're a _boy?"_ Tayuya and Jiraiya both said at once.

"Is that so surprising?"

"Don't take this the wrong way, but you are literally the prettiest boy I have ever seen in my life. I thought you were a girl the first time I saw you."

"Oh. Zabuza-sama, is that the reason I wear the mask?"

"It's a little less unnerving. Also, it's good for our cover."

The ocean was calm, and the sailing went smoothly once they finally set out. Zabuza made hand-signs for a jutsu Naruto didn't know, and after a warning to brace themselves tightly, their boat raced forward on the waves.


	11. Arrival in Mist, Twin Conversations

**Three chapters in 24 hours...what the hell is this pace? This is bizarre. That's almost 10,000 words written in a single day, and I cranked this chapter out in 2 hours. What did you guys do to deserve me?**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. animeficfan: That's the best problem a fic reader can have. I wish the fics I follow would step up to the example I've set with this fic, even though this is the only time I've ever managed to do something like this. It's fuckin' crazy.**

 **2\. OneLunchMan: No, I don't have a , though I guess if people were interested then I'd be willing to set one up. I've always wanted to be a paid author, and while I'm mildly uncomfortable with the idea of taking people's money regarding something I do for fun, I'm also honestly a little too broke to say, "no, I don't want your money." Thank you very much for the offer, though! It means a lot that you think so highly of my writing.**

 **3\. Winter Arctica: You may have missed it, I half-wrote/half-implied it with a couple throwaway lines a few chapters back. Basically, at the end of the Wave mission, Gato arrived before Kakashi had used the Raikiri and killed Haku/immobilized Zabuza's arms. The Kiri-nukenin's betrayal by their employer effectively nulled any reason for them to keep up their fight with Team Seven, so Team Seven leaves Wave with their mission complete and Zabuza...raids Gato's mansion? Immediately goes back to Kiri in order to aid the rebellion? I don't know. One of those two.**

 **4\. Tyber Zahn: While I never read that story, I did read what's been published so far of its reboot, and that was shortly before starting this story a little while ago. So...yeah. May have taken a leaf out of that book. I'm glad that you've taken such an interest in the characters themselves, not just the overarching plot I've put them through. Character development is something I've had a bit of a hard time with in the past, so your praise means a lot.**

 **As of right now, this story has hit 150 followers, 48 reviews, and 68 favorites. Thanks for all of your support so far!**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

On the edge of Kirigakure's territory, inside a concealed cave, the trio of Konoha's ninja sat with the leaders of the rebellion against the Mizukage. Tayuya was between the two men, with Naruto on her left and Zabuza on his left. On Jiraiya's right sat a man with a metal patch bolted over each of his eyes; the kind of injury that needed _that_ sort of attention must have been incredibly fearsome, the younger ninja thought. To Jiraiya, it spoke of how powerful he had to be that he could fight competently without use of either eye. Finally, between the two men who served as her guard, sat the leader of the rebellion: Terumi Mei.

Nobody in the room, Tayuya included, would have failed to note that she was stunningly attractive. Her strapless blue dress covered only the bottom half of her bust, with a mesh armor rising above from underneath it that covered up the rest of her ribs. In addition, the dress was relatively short; its end came at the middle of her thighs, almost as though it was designed to be alluring.

"Only three?" She seemed somewhat disappointed, clearly having hoped for more.

"Be that as it may, Mei-san, the three of us will be more helpful than three or four platoons, or more, of Konoha's rank-and-file. You know me, of course, but as for these two..." Jiraiya grinned.

Naruto, with his grandfather Josuke's Uzushio hitai-ate tied around his forehead, gave a matching smirk. "Chunin, Uzumaki Naruto, at your service."

"Jounin, Kitamon no Tayuya."

"They're the two strongest ninja without big names that you'll find in Konoha...mostly. Naruto's a champion of stealth and misdirection, as well as a Ninjutsu specialist. He's managed to evade full Anbu patrols in broad daylight. Tayuya is a Genjutsu specialist, maybe even the best one I know. She defected from Orochimaru after he left her for dead. Both of them can use Suiton and Raiton techniques, though Tayuya's primary affinity is Doton and Naruto has affinities for Futon and Katon on top of those two.

"Four natures?" The eyepatch-wearing man said. "A Kekkei Genkai, or..."

"Ao-kun, don't pry. Every village has its secrets." Mei admonished him. It wasn't a stretch to believe she was talking about whatever might be under those eyepatches.

"No, no, it's fine." Naruto said. "Tell me, though, is it true that the Mizukage is the Sanbi Jinchuriki?"

"Yes. The Rokubi Jinchuriki is allied with him as well, and we have word that Kumogakure is sending both of their Jinchuriki, the Nibi and Hachibi, to fight with him." Zabuza said.

Naruto laughed. "And you tried to assassinate him? God, _nan mayuge-san_ , you're almost as dumb as I am."

"Zabuza-kun, you know the boy?"

"He and his squad were sent to protect a man that Haku and I were hired to kill. Even though it's because I underestimated him, he managed to beat me as a fresh Genin. Not gonna lie, gaki, my pride is still a little hurt at that."

"Eh, Kakashi-sensei did most of the work. You tired each other out, and _right_ when I was about to have you..."

"My condolences, Naruto-kun, but I wasn't going to let Zabuza-sama die."

"Nah, you're fine." Naruto laughed at Haku's statement. "But, to answer Ao-san's question: yes. I'm a Jinchuriki, just like both of the other Konoha-born Uzumaki were."

"Which one?"

"The Kyuubi no Kitsune. I've already stomped the Ichibi's host, so now I guess I'll get to see how I stack up against Jinchuriki who actually have some level of control over their demons."

"Well, that's one mystery solved."

"Yeah, yeah, maybe you'll get the chance to avenge your honor in a Kenjutsu match some day." The blond ninja leaned forward, chin on his hands and elbows on the table's edge, looking at the woman who was technically his new commander. "So, when do I get to show you what I can do?"

* * *

This war wasn't like the Great Wars he'd read about, full platoons engaging in combat against the enemy. This was find-and-assassinate, the true face of guerrilla warfare. Naruto was a natural at this, with the ability to mask his real presence from sensors as merely one more among his throng of _Kage Bunshin._ Hiding from all others, based purely on his ability to go undetected, was a piece of cake to the blond shinobi.

Tayuya's invisibility Genjutsu, as well as Jiraiya's _Kato Hikari no Jutsu,_ the Transient Light technique, provided a double-layered boost to his evasiveness if he needed it. Combined with his clones-to-kunai _henge_ trick, he gave off the illusion that he could be anywhere at any time. His agility giving him ample dodge time, and an enemy's inability to distinguish whether they were fighting a shadow clone or the genuine article made it seem like he could never be killed.

After all, he didn't have to be the smartest or the strongest ninja on the battlefield in order to be the winner; he just had to be the last man standing.

One day, a little more than two weeks after he'd come to Kirigakure, Mei approached him where he sat, and placed herself down with enough space to be considered formal, as her future position of Mizukage would dictate if they won this civil war.

"Oi, Mei-chan, you don't have to sit that far away if you don't want to. What did you want?" He looked up from his dinner of rice with mashed vegetables, the thin broth soaking up most of the flavor.

"I wanted to check on you. A good leader should know the people they lead...some of my other soldiers tell me that you haven't been eating much, just one meal a day. Are you alright?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I can subsist off of the Kyuubi's chakra for two or three days straight without needing to eat something. It's not...healthy, to be honest, but it conserves your resources and I'll still manage to come out on top. Why, do you think I've been acting more aggressively than normal?"

"No, I was just wondering. I also came to thank you for fighting with us. Even though only three of you came to help us, you've been monumental in turning this war around. We were struggling just to hold on before you arrived, and now it feels like we're on equal footing with Yagura's forces."

"I'm just doing the right thing." He said. "For ninja, morality is a very dark grey at best, and nonexistent at worst. That having been said, I'm happy that the good people have always come out on top in every conflict I've been part of. If we're lucky, then we'll manage to keep that streak alive. Also, I may have gone behind Ero-sennin's back and tried to get a little backup...don't expect more than another three-man cell, though."

"All that proves is that Jiraiya was right to bring you, then. People like you are rare, and I'm glad to have you on our side. If you're interested, I'd be more than willing to give you a position as a Jounin of Kirigakure when we win. You've more than proven your capability."

"Now you're just flattering me." Naruto grinned. "Am I being buttered up like a lobster? What's next, an attempt to flirt your irresistible way into my heart?"

He ignored the idea that it could be because he was the Kyuubi Jinchuriki. Mei was political, she would be a strong Mizukage, but she wasn't shallow.

"Oh, I'm irresistible, am I? How would that redhead feel if she heard that?" The woman had a predatory smirk on her face, and Naruto knew she meant Tayuya.

"She'd probably try to gut me with the solid end of her flute. Enough tries, and she might even succeed." He laughed.

"What's the situation with you two, anyway? You sleep in the same cot, you practically breathe the same air, and neither of you is far behind the other on the battlefield."

"And you need to get better spies, I've seen every one that's watched me. Ao was a bit difficult to find, but when he charges chakra to those hidden eyes of his...I don't know how the hell he got a Byakugan, and I don't really want to find out whose it was beforehand. What I want to know is, what the hell is underneath the other eyepatch?"

"That's a secret he hasn't even told me." Mei admitted. "Still, you're avoiding the question. Did something happen with you two?"

"Something's been going on the whole time, pretty much." Naruto sighed. Giving her the short version, he brought Mei up to speed on his not-relationship with Tayuya.

"So you're afraid of what will happen once you commit to her fully, based on a pattern of attachment, and she's worried that horrors from her past will prevent her from giving you the attention you feel like you deserve?"

"Yeah. Basically. We decided we would hold off on anything official until we managed to feel like we were ready, and good enough for one another."

There was silence for a moment before Mei spoke again, and the pause carried weight behind it as the words sank in.

"Would you like to hear a story?"

"It would be rude to refuse such a beautiful woman." He said, and Mei giggled.

Maybe he'd been wrong, when he'd talked to Tenten all those months ago. Maybe all his time with Jiraiya was actually making him succeed in the area where the perverted hermit was a self-admitted abject failure. Learning by negative example, as it were?

"I'm twenty-nine, and I've never had a man to call my own." She began. "A large part of that has to deal with the Bloodline Purges that ended with the Sandaime Mizukage's death two decades ago, after which I didn't have to keep my Kekkei Genkai hidden any longer. As flirtatious as I am, and as revealing as my clothes are, no man is willing to get close to me in a romantic sense. I'm sure you know about the tradition that gave our village the derogatory moniker, 'Jakiri?'"

"Yeah, and it ended when Zabuza butchered an entire graduating class at the age of six." The phrase, _"Bloody Mist,"_ was infamous.

"That was the year after I graduated. In any event...I was paired, during my academy training, with a boy my own age. His name was Ryouma. Unlike Konoha, in those days, Kiri's academy training began at four years old, and we graduated at ten. Ryouma was a boy who I ate every meal with, who I slept in the same bunk with, who I trained and studied and laughed and cried with. And, on the day of our graduation exam, I killed him with my first attack. He didn't try to block it, and I asked him why."

She could still remember the look on his face.

"He told me that it was because he loved me, too much to kill me...so he had made up his mind to die in my place. As he fell off of my kunai, I told him I loved him too. Ever since that day, no man has willingly approached me unless it had to deal with the mission at hand. Even Ao and Zabuza, loyal as they might be, are afraid of what would come from getting close to me."

"All that browless wonder is afraid of is sitting down at a blackjack table and finding me at the dealer's spot." Naruto joked, and his attempt to dissolve the tension paid off when Mei laughed.

"You really are one of a kind." She said. "You're not worried about what my flirting could do to you?"

"Oh, the horror of falling in love with someone. What's the worst that could happen? There's never a better bet than me, even though I doubt I'll fall for you. I'll be sixteen in about a month, and that's a total generation's age gap. Besides, I don't doubt that there's a man out there for you. Might not know him, and he might not even be here right now, but I promise you he's out there."

The uplifting words brought a genuine smile to the rebel leader's face, and she swept the bangs away from her right eye to show her full face.

"If you'd like my advice...take what you can have with her." Mei said. "Regrets, like death, are something that plague every ninja throughout their life. If she dies tomorrow, I know you'll regret not having loved her in the time you had her. It would be the same for her, in the event that you die. A war-zone may not be the best of places, or full of opportunities, but it's important to live with as few regrets as you can."

Mei looked like she wanted to continue, but the earthen ceiling of their underground base shook enough to loosen and drop small bits of soil onto the floor beneath them.

"Oh, no...all of you, prepare for battle!" She stood, running off.

* * *

"Hey, red bitch."

"Hey, needle dick."

Tayuya and Zabuza, much to the discomfort of anyone nearby, had developed their friendly rapport by insulting one another, or mutual acquaintances. Naruto, as usual, took the worst hit; _piss-haired gaki_ was perhaps the most infuriating thing he'd ever been called.

"So, what's up with you and the gaki?"

"Is something up with us?"

"Well, Mei-sama wanted me to check in with you, see if something was wrong. The way you two live, it's like you're practically married, but any time someone brings up that fact you both back off like a dog who just got its nose full of porcupine quills."

"It's...complicated."

"I was sent on a mission to kill a man that boy protected, he was about to turn my ass into grass, and now he's out here fuckin' one-shotting half of the Mizukage's men. Everything ninja do is complicated as hell, girl. Hearing some tragic love story isn't going to faze me."

"Ugh, fine, asshole." Tayuya groaned. "This is gonna take a while, though."

"I've got all the time in the world. Shoot." Somehow, the infamous Demon of the Mist still seemed threatening even while he relaxed; he made a good bodyguard.

"Well, it all started when Jiraiya rescued me. I was about to die, but he saw that I was still alive and he picked me up. I was on a mission to stop Naruto's team from intercepting Uchiha Sasuke from defecting to Orochimaru, and I almost had one of his teammates until this bitch from Sunagakure arrived and used a Futon jutsu to drop half of a goddamn forest on me. So then, we get back to Konoha after he succeeds with his mission and I fail mine, and I spend a night in the hospital before it's decided that I'll be jailed via house arrest, not a prison cell with visits from Morino Ibiki and his interrogation goons. Guess who's fuckin' house I stayed in."

That name-drop got Zabuza's attention. Morino Ibiki had been captured by Kirigakure in the Third Great War, and was tortured for two months without success until the war's end and his return to Konoha after an exchange of all POWs took place under ceasefire.

"And then, it was decided that since Naruto was gonna leave the village on this bullshit trip with birdshit-sensei, I came along for the ride, since technically the Hokage's orders were that I would have to go wherever he did, and vice versa. Even though we've gotten very close over the course of the trip, and it's supposed to go for more than two years past this point, we're both...we're both scared to take it past the point where we're at."

"That sounds ridiculous." Zabuza said. "What's so bad that it could keep the two of you from enjoying life together?"

"Every time Naruto's gotten really attached to someone, something bad has happened to him. He gave up a home and a family so that a different girl could have one, so he lived on the street for fifteen years before he finally ended up renting out the top floor of a brothel to use as his appartment. He had a crush on that pink-haired girl and she ended up using him as a punching bag for just about every day of their lives until he finally got serious about being stronger. Sasuke, he considers his best friend, and that son of a bitch put two holes in his chest with the Chidori."

"And you? You're not the type to get dissuaded easily. I've seen you turn some other boys down, more than once."

"I...I was one of Orochimaru's personal guards. I was partially responsible for the death of the Sandaime Hokage, someone who Naruto thinks of as a grandfather. And when you're in Orochimaru's service, you do whatever he tells you to do unless you want to wind up dead, or on the operating table for his latest experiment. Sometimes, those happen anyway. I've been hopped up on so many pain meds in such high doses that half my fuckin' nerves don't work right. I haven't been able to feel my legs like I used to, before I had all those trees dropped on me. When I get really, really mad, this goddamn seal eats up all my resolve like a fuckin' Biju until I'm a slave to my own negative emotions. And that's not counting all the experiments they did to me, all the times they tried to do something or another...

"...I don't have very many memories from before I was an Oto kunoichi. They're buried deep enough that they might as well not be there. I don't really want to remember what my life was like before that hell. But what I do remember is enough to tell me that they took an innocent little girl and turned her into a demonic killing machine. I woke up in the middle of the night, more times than I can count, to a bunkmate getting ready to kill me. I don't want that to happen to him, I care too much. I care too much about him to let that happen."

"Then you have to control it, just like he controls the Kyuubi inside of him." Zabuza offered. "Jiraiya's a Fuinjutsu master, I guarantee you he should have something to block it from influencing you until you can get it removed. I can't tell you what to do about your memories, but I don't see why you and he can't be together, even now. Sure, being together and not having worked through your problems could come back to bite your ass in the long run, but you don't have to fly solo, either. Nobody will tell you two that you can't help each other out of your own little private hells. You might even find that it brings you a lot closer to take your burdens and share them. He's a good kid, I'm sure he'll agree to the idea if you press the issue enough."

The _Kirigakure no Oni_ stood and walked away, hoping that he'd managed to sway Tayuya to one decision or another.

The rumbling of the ground around them was all the warning that they would get, regarding the danger nearing them from the surface.


	12. Bloody Mist

**Okay, I didn't think it would be, but it looks like today is another two-chapters-in-one-day kind of day.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. draven32: Thanks! Because I cranked it out really fast, I was a little worried that it wouldn't hold up quality-wise. Glad to know I was wrong!**

 **2\. OneLunchMan: Yeah, Zabuza's honestly one of my favorite characters in the series and given how he's supposed to be legendarily strong, that basically means that his canon death equates to, "going out like a bitch." I ain't havin' that shit, and really this Kiri Rebellion arc was just an excuse to write some stuff about Zabuza.**

 **3\. Nethis: Yeah, I don't really like NaruHina either, even though it was the only one Kishimoto would have pulled since NaruSaku was never gonna happen in a million years, especially not with the bullshit that was Neji, "freed from his cage."**

 **4\. gunslinger20121: I do it because, as an author, you really kind of have two choices to shock and provoke your readers into continuing the book/series. Either you keep spoonfeeding them cliffhangers, or you start killing characters. Basically, you have to choose whether you're going to be Stephen King or George R.R. Martin. I try to lean towards the former option.**

 **Thanks to everyone else who's read, reviewed, followed and favorited this story so far!**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

Yagura's army was out in full force, clearly looking to eradicate the rebellion once and for all. With a savage grin at that revelation, Naruto performed a fast _henge_ and went up, while his own clones modified their transformed appearance. Handing them out and preparing his falx, he laughed.

"Like father, like son...throw on my signal." He told the rebels already above ground, and they passed more out to those who were still coming up. "And when they return, keep throwing. If we're lucky, we won't have to fight a full-scale battle.

It was easy to wait until they were well within throwing range...after all, he had god knows how many clones transformed into the appearance of his father's signature triple-pronged kunai.

"Fire!"

There were a great many ninja in Krigakure who'd heard of the man known as the _Kiiro Senko._ There were some, attending this battle, who'd seen him in action during the Third Great War.

They knew that those kunai, arcing to land in front and behind them meant death.

His falx was in his right hand, and he had a _Rasengan_ charged in his left. To all the world, and all those watching him, he was Namikaze Minato's vengeful ghost who had come upon them. Though her death had weighed much more heavily on her teammate, Hatake Kakashi, it was no secret that Nohara Rin's death had come at the hands of Kiri-nin.

"Fall back!" An unknown ninja yelled, and some in the group wheeled around...only to come face-to-face with Tayuya, who didn't even need a _henge_ to pull off the look of Uzumaki Kushina.

Tayuya weaved arbitrary hand seals, and Naruto summoned chakra chains that ran through cross-sections of their enemies. Without warning, he used a _kawarimi_ with one of his transformed clones and swung his sword, all while willing his chains to move and kill more of the Mizukage's loyal forces.

Tayuya vanished out of range in a _shunshin_ that left Naruto alone within the enemy group, and in seconds they were surrounded by dozens of the blond man's clones. While most of the enemy died, two began to flee. Preparing himself, he asked the watching Mei a question:

"How many men does it take to deliver a message?"

"Their message was received a long time ago, impostor." A voice came from behind Naruto, and the sharp end of a hooked battle-staff rested against the blond's throat. Seeing no reason to continue using his _henge,_ Naruto let it drop, though there wasn't much of a difference between the truth and the illusion. "Why would Konoha aid the rebellion?"

"Because it's the right thing to do. A tyrannical Kage who believes himself above the law must be eliminated." Yagura found himself with a kunai touching the skin between his shoulder-blades, one of Naruto's clones perfectly ready to kill Yagura in an instant.

"And yet, those who defy their Kage are traitors whose only reward is death. It seems that we're at a moral impasse...would you suggest a battle to see whose will is stronger?"

"Oh, please, as though a Biju whose tail count is as low as the Sanbi could threaten me."

Naruto's clone was destroyed, and in that instant both Jinchuriki leapt away.

"Get them all out of here...we're about to have a landscaping meeting." Naruto joked to Tayuya, who paled.

"Slight problem with that, piss-brain!"

A gargantuan force, several times larger than the one Naruto had slaughtered, had made its way to the clearing where all the rebels were gathered. At the head of that group stood three other ninja; while Naruto recognized none of them, he could pick out that their chakra was just like his: warped from years of hosting a Biju.

"Oh, son of a bitch. All four of you?"

The help he'd sent for couldn't get here quickly enough.

* * *

"Well, I'm just gonna say what's on all of our minds here: we're fucked, plain and simple." Zabuza said. "Still, I may be able to even the odds a little bit. I know there are five Jinchuriki here, but they don't call me a demon without reason."

"They call you that for your lethality and your temper, Zabuza-sama. Not your overwhelming power."

"Goddammit, Haku, play along."

"A thousand apologies, Zabuza-sama."

"If you think you can do something," Jiraiya said, "then go ahead and do it. I'm all ears for a plan, and there's absolutely no way that Naruto will manage to take on four enemy Jinchuriki by himself."

"Are you doubting me?" The blond said, to the shock of all those who hadn't noticed his presence. "Yagura's over there fighting one of my clones. Honest to god, I have enough of them in different _henge_ techniques that it could take him hours to finish all of them off. They're only good for one or two hits, but that's all the difference between them and me. They even have access to the Kyuubi's chakra."

"So you're telling me that, potentially, every single one of your clones could go into a full-possession mode and we could have a thousand or more copies of the Kyuubi running around?"

"Well, not to that extent, I don't think? But they can all draw on its power without affecting my ability to pull from it." Naruto could see a blot of brown on the horizon, in the air. Help was coming.

"Wait. You're holding off the Mizukage, the Sanbi Jinchuriki, with nothing but shadow clones? Are you joking?" Zabuza seemed dubious.

"Well, is he killing us right now? I don't think so...which means he's being held off. So, yeah, just a few clones."

"You're bullshitting. Please tell me you're bullshitting." Jiraiya was incredulous. He knew that Naruto had held off the Ichibi Jinchuriki during the invasion of Konoha, that had been how he really earned his Chunin promotion, but to keep a Jinchuriki at bay who had full power over their Biju?

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not, Ero-sennin. Just remember that my ability to evade logic is what gives me the power to win, no matter the odds. So...time for a show. Again, you chucklefucks, get the hell out of here."

"Oh no you don't. You can have all the fun once I'm finally through living. Until then, I'm gonna kill my enemies."

Ao rotated his left eyepatch up, and Naruto saw the secret that he'd been keeping so desperately; not only did he have a Byakugan, but a Sharingan as well.

The thought that he could have and use both Kekkei Genkai congruently without having been born into either one...it was mildly terrifying. The kind of mental fortitude it would take had to be massive.

"His name was Uchiha Shisui." The blue-haired man said, noticing Naruto's stare. "And he had a particular strength for mind-altering jutsu...I can use it to forcefully override one of the enemy Jinchuriki's brains if I make eye contact with them, to make them join our side. I can only use it once, though, and the one with sunglasses can't be affected."

"That's the Hachibi Jinchuriki, younger brother of the Raikage. He'll be our biggest concern, even more than Yagura. The other two are Utakata, the Rokubi, and Yugito, the Nibi." Jiraiya said.

"Do you have a preference?" Ao asked Mei.

"No...whichever one makes eye contact first, that's the one you need to go for. Don't waste your time hunting for one or the other."

* * *

"Remind me again why we literally just crossed the whole continent, plus an ocean, to get here? Karasu is gonna get water in its joints!"

"Shut up, Kankuro. We're here because the Kazekage told us to come with him." Temari groaned, and she would've smacked her younger brother over the side of their ride were it not for the fact that it would have been a _long_ drop. They had to be at least a thousand feet in the air.

"I'm right here, you know. Besides, you don't have to refer to me so...formally."

"I know, it's just habit. Besides, you earned the title! Why shouldn't I call my little brother by his rank?"

Gaara smiled as his older siblings began to bicker back and forth, recalling Naruto's words during the invasion of Konoha.

 _"I fight for others because I trust that they would do the same for me. You fight for yourself because you don't believe anyone else would. One steel cable alone, can be severed...but if you bundle enough of them together, you won't be able to cut through them all."_

He had started to collect those metaphorical cables, one by one.

From above, he managed to pick out several blond ninja attacking another, whose hair was close to the color of his sand. The Ichibi had heightened his senses, and he saw another amid several hundred other ninja, staring down a force many times larger than their own.

That would be the real one.

"There you are."

The sand beneath him opened, and Gaara rocketed down until more sand rose up from the ground to meet him.

Naruto turned, saw the Ichibi Jinchuriki, and grinned. "Gaara!"

"Naruto, you mean to tell me that the aid you requested...was the Kazekage?" Mei asked.

"And his older siblings." Naruto said as Temari and Kankuro landed behind their brother.

"Introductions later. Kazekage-dono, we were trying to come up with a plan, since they've been gracious enough not to attack until Yagura orders it or we strike first. Do you have any ideas?"

"I am the host of the Ichibi no Tanuki, and while the options that gives me may not seem obvious...as everyone knows, Shukaku is a sand-and-wind demon. Naruto."

"Yeah?"

"Where are we?"

"Uh, Kirigakure."

"And what is Kirigakure?"

"A collection of islands."

"And what do islands have?"

"Uh...beaches?"

"Correct. What's on beaches?"

"Sand. Lots, and lots, and lots of sand. Even under the ocean." Now, Naruto was getting a clearer picture.

"And I am an undisputed master of sand. Shukaku's chakra is not limitless, and my control over it is moderate at best, but even now...the soil over the sand in this area is very thin, despite the bedrock underneath. While it will take a massive amount of chakra, I can almost instantly grind all of that soil into sand."

Two Jinchuriki on four; the odds were looking much better for the rebels, even if they were still enormously outmanned and outgunned. Once Ao managed to make eye contact with Utakata or Yugito, it would be an even three-on-three battle that all the rest could evacuate from.

Those who had seen Gaara's proclivity for murdering with his element knew what would happen once he'd made this battle's stage into his own arena.

"Try to kill as few people as possible, if you could...we're already stretched thin, I would hate to see more ninja die."

"Noted, but I will defend myself and my siblings."

"I wouldn't ask you to trade their lives. I just want as little bloodshed as possible."

"I understand."

"On my signal. Three...two...one..."

Inside the seals that contained them, six demons roared as one. Incongruous, raging at the setting sun, each swore that it would leave the day in victory or death.

"Go."

The ground around them shifted into sand, which Gaara flung as mightily as he could.

"BE GONE!" He shouted, the manic look on his face something that only three in attendance remembered. "Flee now, unless you choose to die!"

Ao grinned as both sides fled the battlefield. He'd managed to activate Shisui's eye on a blonde woman, the Nibi Jinchuriki. She would remain in a coma until he reactivated the technique.

"Yugito-chan! That sucks, man..." The muscle-bound Kumo-nin said. "I'm Kirabi, and it's pain you'll see since you've messed with me!"

"Does he do this all the time?"

The Rokubi Jinchuriki, and the only one who had yet to introduce himself, sighed. That meant he was Utakata.

"Yes, unfortunately."

"Don't diss my rhyme, or it's slug-clobberin' time!" Naruto didn't read comic books, but even _he_ knew that was copyright infringement.

Two-on-three odds were mildly better than four-on-two, though it would have been better if Ao had fully succeeded in making one of the enemy Jinchuriki convert by force.

"Kirabi, brother of the Yondaime Raikage. Yagura, the Yondaime Mizukage. Kihou o Fudou no Utakata, grandson of the Nidaime Mizukage. Myself, Sabaku no Gaara, the Godaime Kazekage."

"Uzumaki Naruto, son of the Yondaime Hokage...damn, is this a royalty meetup? Should I get Tsunade obaa-chan, so she can brag too?"

"Don't disrespect ya elders, ya sand and forest dwellers!"

"Okay, I've had about enough of whatever the hell kinda bullshit you think is coming outta your mouth. Consider this beatdown officially fucking started!"

Thankfully, Jiraiya had the foresight to negate both the Slog Seal and the chakra limiter that Naruto still wore in the moments prior to being cast aside by Gaara's sand. With nothing but natural speed, surpassing even Kirabi's Raiton-enhanced reflexes, Naruto's falx managed to cut a long line into the black man's face. The sword's edge had tugged along the Kumo shinobi's cheek, drawing all the way back to his neck before Naruto finished passing him. Kirabi turned, and Naruto saw the gash slowly mend in front of his eyes before leaving a scar.

"I can heal perfectly, but I think I'll leave that be. A reminder not to underestimate a ninja with a sword that great."

"Oh my _fucking_ god, do you ever stop?"

"Make me take you fo' serious, fool, ya fool!"

"Fuck this. Katon: San-Yajirushi no Jutsu!" The simply-termed Three Arrow technique shot one lance of flame at each of his enemies.

"Sabaton: Sabakukyu!" Gaara smirked, dry sand wrapping around Utakata's legs until an exploding bubble shot the Kiri-nin skyward. "You think you can outmaneuver me?"

Wordlessly, the Rokubi Jinchuriki fired three bubbles from his long pipe, which Gaara dodged before they landed; the explosions they caused told him that his instincts had been right.

"'Floating Bubbles,' my ass!" Naruto yelled, seeing the attack, and barely dodging Yagura's hooked staff for the trouble.

"Utakata, keep the Ichibi busy. Kirabi and I will deal with the Kyuubi." The Mizukage stated.

Gaara attempted to lash out at his fellow Kage in defiance of that directive, but more exploding bubbles destroyed the sand-based attack before it could begin.

"Your opponent is me." Utakata chastised the redheaded Kazekage, still using his pipe to create more bubbles, the upward force of which kept him floating in the air. "So focus on that. Honor among thieves, as the saying goes? You won't have to worry about them until you defeat me. After all, if you can't do that much, then you don't stand a chance against either of those two."

"Your blood will be a perfect offering to my mother's spirit." Gaara said monotonously, the dark rings around his eyes seeming more menacing than they had before.

* * *

"So how long do you think you can keep me on the defensive?" Naruto said, grinning. "Yagura, all due respect, you don't really seem that strong. I kept you busy with a few clones for like...five minutes? And you only killed two of them. What, did they just give you the Mizukage hat out of pity?"

While Kirabi had managed to keep up fairly well, despite being slightly slower, Yagura was practically being left in the dust; he was younger than Naruto, and despite his Kage status, he had the stamina of a child to go along with it...or maybe he was just outclassed by Kirabi's muscle and Naruto's heritage as an Uzumaki.

"Silence! You have no idea what this station means!"

"I know enough to know that you're a failure, as a Kage and a Jinchuriki. I know that you're beneath me, in power and number of tails. God, is there anything you can do right?" Naruto goaded.

"Don't listen to him, Mizukage-dono!" Kirabi said, wielding a blade in each hand.

"Besides...that's not even how you use a weapon with a hook, you dumb son of a bitch. _This_ is how you do it!"

As the pair had chased him around, Naruto had dropped a kunai or shuriken every so many feet, and now both of his enemies were right in the center of his trap. Swinging his falx down, Naruto loaded Raiton chakra into it and sent it flying out. "Raiton: Dai-Raigen'ya!"

The Great Lightning Field technique required metal markers in order to work, unlike its basic version which connected a circuit between whatever material Naruto placed his hands around. He felt bad about re-using the same technique and making it stronger, but it was just so goddamned _useful_. It wasn't like Jiraiya's nearly comical attempts to make a bigger Rasengan, which only had one purpose. He could use it as a tripwire, a rudimentary barrier technique, and even an assassination technique.

While Kirabi was less fazed by the attack, due to coating himself with Raiton chakra, Yagura yelled in pain as the lightning jumped from a fallen kunai to his staff, and up his body.

That was the problem about being the host of a Suiton-based Biju: Yagura was much more vulnerable to Raiton techniques.

"It doesn't even matter if you have a perfect relationship with the Sanbi. This place will be your grave."

Naruto wished that he could believe in his words with the same certainty in which he spoke them. The Kirigakure rebels had filled him in on the fact that Kirabi and Yagura were the only two Jinchuriki in known history to have been in perfect sync with their Biju, something that made them infinitely more dangerous beyond their individual combat skills. Utilizing the _Kage Bunshin no Jutsu_ for what had to be at least the millionth time in his life, he prepared to engage the two as their respective demons' chakra started to coat their bodies.

He elected not to copy after them, wanting to see how far he could push before being forced to escalate his strength as well...though he got the feeling that Kirabi was only doing it to play along with the Mizukage, who'd been sent reeling after Naruto's last attack.

One way or another, the blond knew, he was going to hurt like hell when this battle was all said and done.


	13. Five Jinchuriki Firefight

**Hey, look at that, we've reached unlucky chapter 13...though I wonder whose luck will turn out worse, you readers or these characters?**

 **I think the _real_ unlucky one was me, I was stuck with writer's block on the back half of this chapter for about four hours after I got home from my shift at work. The 4:00 AM wakeup time, and a 6:00 AM - 4:30 PM shift at a grocery store, don't go over very well with my body.**

 **"But Melkor, didn't you post chapter 12 at 11:30 last night? Also, are you telling us you wrote half of this chapter, plus this AN, in an hour?"**

 **The answer is yes, to both. I didn't go to sleep until 2 AM because I started writing this chapter after I published the last one. I can taste colors and hear pictures...or maybe that's skittles and youtube? No clue. I'm fuckin' tired, though. Probably should've napped, but I didn't want to disappoint you guys and make you go a day without an update. If there's ever a point where I won't be able to update for a day or two, or more, I'll try to leave an AN at the bottom of the last chapter published.**

 **...yeah, I think I'm gonna get on that nap real soon. Maybe. I might just keep writing.**

 **EDIT: after posting, I read through the chapter and fixed a few errors. Sorry about that.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. draven32: Yeah, the intention was to show a stark contrast between...well, you're gonna find out by the end of this chapter. I won't spoil it for anyone. Ao taking Shisui's Sharingan is more of a, "how can I fuck with canon to make some of the things that happened in canon seem more convincing?" We all know that Itachi had one of his eyes, so now that we're all aware Danzo is lacking its powers, it could explain in canon why he didn't seize control immediately after the Sandaime's death besides the idea that he either didn't want to, or he didn't have it yet. Or, Kishimoto hadn't thought that far ahead...which is poor planning, and creates another continuity error.**

 **A story that doesn't treat its universe like the real world, just building threats as the hero discovers them, is just a recipe for two-dimensional fiction.**

 **2\. OneLunchMan: You'll absolutely _love_ the end of this chapter, then.**

 **3\. Ordo-Silver: Because I, friend, am a terrible man. A terrible, murderous, cliffhanger-loving man.**

 **4\. Winter Arctica: I'm not gonna say that chapter was an excuse to write a Mei backstory, or give Zabuza some more screen-time, or have NaruTayu fluff without having them in the same room as one another, but...yeah, no, it was totally that. I'm not sorry. As for Naruto and Yagura...you may have to wait until tomorrow.**

 **Thanks to everybody else who reviewed, followed, and favorited since last time! I really appreciate it, it keeps me pumped to continue writing.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

Gaara was frustrated. He was tired, he was a little hungry, his bubble-blowing opponent wouldn't roll over and die...

You know, the little things in life.

"Futon: Kyofu no Yashi!" The Kazekage yelled, triumph in his eyes when the attack landed. Utakata spun, and wasn't fast enough to recover before grains of sand tore the Rokubi Jinchuriki's pipe apart.

"Come on, what was that for?" Utakata said indignantly, casting the ruined weapon's pieces aside as he dropped to the ground. "I'm just trying to screw around, kid. You sure you want me to get serious?"

"If they thought you were stronger than me, they would have kept this to a mob battle. You're just a diversion so that Naruto can't have a fair fight."

Out of the corners of their eyes, they saw lightning spring up from the aforementioned blond's _Dai-Raigen'ya_ technique, and heard Yagura's pained cry.

"Looks like he's not doing too badly, in spite of that. You're sure I can't convince you to just...leave, and go somewhere? It would make my life much easier. Why are you so loyal to a tyrant?"

"Because he wasn't responsible for his actions, but by the time we'd broken the Genjutsu on him, this rebellion had already begun. All we want to do is find the one responsible and bring them to justice."

The words gave Gaara pause.

"I am sorry. Unfortunately, it seems, both sides are in the right. The rebels want Yagura to answer for crimes he committed while placed under the control of another, and Yagura wants to end the war that shouldn't have begun in the first place."

"Yeah...but you're here out of loyalty to your friend, and I'm here due to the same thing. Neither of us is willing to abandon the one who got us into this mess..."

"So we fight." Gaara acknowledged piteously, though that melancholy was soon replaced by determination. "A shame, to kill one who is my like a brother with this curse."

"A shame, to kill one so young." Utakata countered, dark chakra beginning to eat at his body. "A shame, that our own senses of loyalty will be what kills us."

The two renewed their battle, demons howling from within.

"Suiton: Suirendan!" The water bullet slammed into Gaara, but the redhead didn't budge an inch as the caked sand armor fell off of him in chunks.

"Doton: Iwayama no Konagona no Jutsu!" The Crag-Breaker technique shot jagged earth up, attempting to trap or kill Utakata.

"Futon: Bakuken!" True to its name, the air compressed around Utakata's fist when he swung a punch at Gaara and intentionally missed, causing an explosion due to the disturbance in the air that caught the front of Gaara's shirt.

"More explosions...I'm really starting to hate that sound."

"You're more than welcome to die. That'll stop you from having to hear it ever again."

"No, thank you. Then I would have to spend an eternity listening to Shukaku's depraved ramblings in hell."

"Eh, it was worth a shot."

"Don't say you didn't try." Gaara's visage changed, calm and blank as he stared at the terrain.

 _Shukaku, can you hear me? I have a proposition for you._ Gaara offered the words up to his demon.

 _ **Speak, then.**_

 _If I willingly start to give you control, to fight this man and his Biju, will you guarantee that you'll go back inside the seal once this battle is over?_

 ** _What's in it for me?_** The Biju answered with another question.

 _Destroying the Rokubi in its home territory, proving your superiority._

 ** _Tempting...oh, whatever, it's been at least a century since I've fought one of its containers! Let me at him!_**

Gaara's eyes changed, black sclera defined by the golden iris of the Ichibi.

He couldn't be stopped.

* * *

Kirabi's increased speed in his first-stage Biju cloak actually outpaced Naruto enough that the blond had charged his own body with Raiton chakra in order to keep up, with Yagura lagging behind due to his earlier wounds. Apparently, the Sanbi couldn't heal his wounds. All of Naruto's shadow clones had been destroyed, leaving the blond to face his adversaries alone.

Kirabi had begun wielding a third sword in his mouth, in the Santoryu Kenjutsu style made famous during the Warring Clans era. Naruto's enlarged falx was big enough to block all attacks from the burly Kumo-nin, but he would be in trouble if the two shinobi got any more serious.

"You know, I don't know what kind of creature you'd call the Hachibi, but I guarantee you..." Naruto leapt away, sheathing his falx and running through a series of hand seals. "No matter what it is, I think it'll be big enough for a thousand birds to eat."

The _Chidori_ came to life in Naruto's hand, every nerve in his body lighting up to move just in time to avoid a would-be-lethal blow from the hooked end of Yagura's staff. Uzushio's village symbol shone on the blond ninja's forehead, and even if these two had been born long after its destruction, they still belonged to two of the responsible parties.

"That's a lot of lightning, but your jutsu isn't frightening! Mister Nine, we're doing fine!"

How Kirabi managed to speak at all, let alone clearly, with a sword between his teeth...Naruto wasn't sure he wanted to know. It didn't help that the other shinobi's, "rapping," was awful.

Charging the Kyuubi's chakra into his arm, the _Chidori_ turned as red as it had been when he'd debuted his knowledge of the attack against Jiraiya. In seconds, the chirping songbirds had been phased out and replaced with the raucous screaming of carrion-birds.

"You guys should really pay more attention to where I leave my weapons, and if they're really weapons...and separating yourselves from the weakest member of your group. Be back in a few!" Naruto threw a smoke pellet down before initiating his _kawarimi_ , and six of his clones surrounded the allied pair of Jinchuriki.

Naruto didn't worry about how he'd get back, though. He'd already planted another clone in the ground around them, hiding on the ground as a shuriken that looked far too old to have been placed recently.

Of course, keeping that as a contingency plan was a nice idea too. He decided that he would _shunshin_ back to his battle with Kirabi and Yagura.

* * *

When he arrived to help Gaara against his foe, he saw two half-possessive Biju smashing into one another...practically without jutsu. Gaara was in his half-transformed state, and Utakata had entered into the second stage of his Biju cloak, with four tails active. Demonic chakra, so concentrated and heavy that it appeared to be black, covered his whole body and seemed to drip off of him like water from a showerhead that had only just turned off.

"Naruto!" Gaara yelled, which was all the warning Utakata would get before a demon-infused _Chidori_ nearly ran through his gut. Utakata didn't bother to dodge, and the most powerful technique that Naruto knew failed to pierce the Rokubi Jinchuriki's skin. Jumping away before his enemy could lash out in revenge, Naruto looked to his friend for a plan.

"Don't kill him. I promise, Yagura has his reasons. He can't be spared, not when the rebellion has come this far, but he's not evil. This one, though...he can be left alive. Kiri will need all the help it can get rebuilding their village."

With a somber look in his eyes, Naruto nodded.

"I learned a demon restrainment technique that I could use in the event that something like this happened. Do you think you can keep him busy for a few minutes? This is going to take somewhere between a quarter, to half, of my chakra, looking at how far he's already gone."

Gaara nodded, and leapt into another round of melee with his fellow Jinchuriki. Closing his eyes, Naruto focused purely on his chakra and began to run through the hand seals necessary to complete the jutsu. As more of his clones appeared, each one running through a different set of seals than the one before, he saw both of the other Jinchuriki after opening his eyes to gauge the distance he'd need to travel.

"Fuin: Enma no Nijuu-Roku Kanadzuchi." The Twenty-Six Hammers of Enma was one of Uzushio's Kinjutsu techniques, and could place any target in a deathlike sleep until its caster either died or unsealed the victim. The only catch was, it required more chakra to use depending on the intended victim's chakra levels.

Clearly, the idea had been to make sure that no Uzumaki could fall victim to their own technique.

In a burst of speed, Naruto moved forward to slap Utakata across the back, and the effect was immediate: the man's chakra cloak disappeared, and he fell unconscious before hitting the ground.

The drain on Naruto's chakra was just as immediate, and he winced; the sealing had taken much closer to half of his chakra than the quarter he'd been hoping for. On the other hand, he still had plenty more, and he'd eliminated one of their enemies.

"Time to go play the fair-fighting game. Hope you're ready, Gaara."

The Kazekage nodded, and both ninja performed a fast _shunshin_ that had them vanish from their fallen brother's side.

* * *

"Miss me, assholes?" Naruto grinned, with Gaara standing beside him. "Now it's a little more fair, two-on-two."

"Utakata...what did you do to him?" Yagura growled.

"I shoved a Chidori through his gut. Left a big-ass hole in it, too...don't suppose he heals like me, though, does he?"

"You bastard! I'll kill you!" Yagura screamed, his body being taken over by the Sanbi as he transformed into a full possession. In a matter of seconds, the demon turtle was alive in the flesh again.

"Oh, that's not good." Kirabi said, not rhyming for the first time in the fifteen minutes that Naruto had known him. "New mission, objective understood."

Goddammit.

"New mission?"

"I'm gonna pacify the demon, get Yugito and get to leavin'!"

Of course, the Raikage wouldn't risk his two strongest soldiers on a mission to aid a tyrant; if things were looking a little hairier than anticipated, it wouldn't have made sense for either of the two to die so far from home. Better to save themselves, particularly in this war that wasn't even theirs to interfere with.

Naruto could relate, but he wouldn't have abandoned the rebels he'd fought beside. For better or worse, he was one of them.

"You know, Yagura seems a little...unhinged. More than a Kage should be. No offense, Gaara."

"None taken. The reason, or at least the one Utakata told me when we fought, is because he was placed under a mind-altering Genjutsu that caused him to commit the atrocities that led to this rebellion."

The Sanbi's roar returned the pair to the battle at hand, and Kirabi sighed.

"Yo, Kazekage, let's transform all the way!"

"There's no need for you to do that." Gaara said, sand building him up until the genuine Shukaku stood before them. "I've told you...as long as I have sand, I am invincible."

From offshore, a tower of sand shot upward with more force than was probably necessary, collecting itself into a gigantic ball. The tide had fallen a full foot from the action, but Gaara wasn't concerned with that.

Kirabi and Naruto ducked behind Shukaku's legs as the sandy murder-ball dropped down with enough force to crush a mountain. Their silent hopes were dashed when a bright burst of light signaled that the Sanbi had unleashed a _Bijudama._ The blast tore through all the wet sand, making it explode outwards and ensuring that the Sanbi remained unharmed.

"Oh, this isn't gonna be fun."

Shukaku spat wind, forming a cyclone that began tearing its way through the forest around them. The Sanbi countered with a wall of boiling water, which set trees on fire when it hit them.

"You know, Mister Nine, it's time for us to shine. We can't let them have all the fun, or else we three can't crush that one!"

Naruto growled, his expression turning feral as violent thoughts began to fill his mind. Throughout the fog of grim wishes, one directive stood out more than the rest.

 _ **Kill.**_

Two tails of chakra exploded out behind his body, red chakra racing across his skin as dark power flowed through him. His eyes were red with slit pupils, finger and toenails transformed into claws, and his teeth had turned canid in nature. The sharp teeth resembled a Kiri-nukenin Naruto had once met, Hoshigaki Kisame, though that was all the similarity they shared.

With a loud shout, though the sound was very near to a bark, the Kyuubi Jinchuriki gathered more of his Biju's power.

His arms moved, controlled by the demon inside, and the voice that was his-and-yet-not-his spoke.

 **"Zenton: Shinra no Tenken no Jutsu!"** The technique wasn't one that Naruto had ever heard of before, let alone used. What was, "all-natured," supposed to mean? Furthermore, what could the Kyuubi do with-

Naruto paused his thought process for a moment, realizing that by channeling the Kyuubi's chakra and giving it a manual override to his limbs, he'd effectively given it access to its own power source. Thankfully, a Biju's chakra couldn't undo the seal it had been placed under, so he was safe from at least _one_ threat in the world.

A great rumbling was heard in the sky overhead, and Naruto understood why the jutsu held the name, "Heavenly Fist of the Omnipresent God." Burning through the atmosphere, a meteorite smashed down into the ground near them, sending Kirabi flying and knocking the Ichibi over when the shockwave touched them. Shielded by virtue of the fact that he technically cast the jutsu, he watched as the Sanbi spun end-over-end until it managed to right itself. Kirabi seemed content to stay hidden, almost seeming to say that he wanted to see just how strong Naruto was as a Jinchuriki. Gaara, on the other hand, was awoken and knocked out by the force of the blast; Shukaku had vanished, and the redheaded Kazekage was lost somewhere amid the vast desert he'd created.

 _That was fucking badass._ Naruto communicated telepathically.

 _ **You're fighting my brethren. You can't utilize my full strength with all these seals in place, but it would leave a very poor mark on my reputation if you died against this weakling. The control he was placed under has caused him to lose most of his power, and even my sibling demon hasn't regained its full abilities yet.**_

The response surprised Naruto, as the Kyuubi generally chose to ignore Naruto's infrequent attempts to talk.

 _Got anything else up your sleeve?_

 _ **Always.**_

 **"Zenton: Mu Juuryou Sanchou no Jutsu!"** The Weightless Mountain Peak began, a slim point rising up from the ground beneath the Sanbi to pierce all the way through it and continue rising, its base ever-widening and carrying the Sanbi further into the air. Finally, it snapped, sending the demon careening into the ground.

 _ **That's the most of my strength that you can safely use right now. Your body will need to take a break from my chakra before it can handle my more intensive techniques.**_

Internally, Naruto paled at the idea that the Kyuubi considered meteor-pulling and mountain-creating techniques to be _minor_ jutsu...and he still didn't know what the hell, "Zenton," was supposed to mean.

As Naruto's Biju cloak faded, the Sanbi slammed head-first into the ground, the damage from two high-magnitude land-altering techniques on the heels of one another being too great to continue sustaining itself. Yagura stood in its place as it disappeared, his body fully healed. With a series of mixed, conflicting emotions in his eyes, he spoke.

"Well, at the very least, thank you for that. Your defeat of the Sanbi shook off the last vestiges of the mind-control technique I was placed under."

The difference in attitude was enough proof that he was telling the truth; the man before Naruto stood with the poise and calmness befitting a Kage, the hooked staff held loosely in his hand and with a gentle smile on his face.

"I'm sorry we had to meet as enemies, Uzumaki Naruto." He said. "I'm sure that, had you been my ally, the rebellion could have been ended peacefully once you touched my mind."

"I'm sorry you were controlled." The Konoha-nin offered. "I'm sorry that your position, and my alliance, make us do what we're about to."

"As Mizukage, I cannot allow the secession of such a significant portion of my forces. Even though their number is small, the talents they possess far outmatch most of those still loyal to me. My duty as the leader of Kirigakure is to keep my village united, however I must."

"Then only one of us is coming out alive."

Naruto's sealed falx rested comfortably in his right hand, and utter silence fell over the land that watched over both of the still-standing Jinchuriki. The hush was a prelude to bloodshed; no matter what, one of them would die today, and neither had resolved that it could be anyone but their enemy.

At a signal that neither knew, yet both understood, the Yondaime Mizukage and the head of the Uzumaki clan rushed forward to claim their destiny.


	14. Execution Demon

**I've had this chapter planned for days now. Glad I finally get to write it...although you guys are probably gonna be _pissed_ at me. Try not to worry, though; I have a plan, derived from my infamous Bullshit no Jutsu!**

 **Not that everything in canon wasn't cooked up with that exact same technique.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. draven32: Most of them, maybe, but there's one important one who intends to be a little more proactive. Not that you'll know that, since I didn't write it, but I was a bit focused on the fighting. And, yeah, the intention is to showcase that there's a reason Kurama can't reliably be controlled, even inside of a Jinchuriki.**

 **2\. animeficfan: You'll be happy then...maybe. I won't tell you what to be.**

 **3\. Ordo-Silver: There are times when de-escalation of violence is more prudent, and it'd be acceptable to talk your enemies into peace. This isn't one of those times; Naruto and Yagura are both strong-willed, and ready to die for the causes they believe in. Neither one will back down until one or both of them are dead.**

 **4\. OneLunchMan: Wow, maybe I should get myself checked for ESP? Nah, I figured that since you've liked the previous parts of the story so much, you'd enjoy that one too. I hate to see how this one's revelation goes over on you, though...oh well. Trust that I know (vaguely) what I'm writing?**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

The metal of their weapons clashed against one another, neither giving way to the other's power. Silently, as he wove back and forth before continuing to strike, Naruto weighed his options. His Suiton and Katon techniques were out of the question; Yagura, as the Sanbi Jinchuriki, had a level of mastery over water like Gaara's inhuman control over sand. Now, with the Mizukage at the height of his power, attempting to subvert that would be suicidal. Raiton techniques were his best bet in this situation, but he had very few of those available. The _Raigen'ya_ required him to get a hand on Yagura, and the Chidori was too risky to attempt wielding against an enemy with enhanced reflexes. That left a couple other options, but those required a few more hand seals than he had time for.

Yagura's reflexes had caught up to Naruto since the Sanbi's recession, and the blond hated it. He'd liked Yagura better when the younger man had been unable to keep up...but Naruto continued thinking. Their Kenjutsu skills were practically even, though the advantage went to Yagura for the moment as Naruto's falx was sealed into its smaller form. Linked to the Kyuubi's withdrawn chakra, it would stay that way until the next time his inner demon gave him its power. His only consolation, in that regard, was that his opponent couldn't use a Biju's power either.

That left very few options. He could keep up the Kenjutsu match until Yagura tired, trusting that his familial-inherited stamina would allow him to outlast the Mizukage, he could start using his Futon techniques...or he could start resorting to Fuinjutsu. He couldn't direct their fight to any of the territory surrounding them, lest they endanger more people, but both men could feel the eyes of ninja on either side watching them. It was slightly unnerving, but Naruto managed to block it out. It was just like the Chunin Exams, and his first-round bout against Neji that had ended with the Hyuuga's hospitalization, soon followed by the invasion of Konoha. The only difference was that the stakes were higher, and he was fighting in foreign land.

This was the battle that would decide the fate of Kirigakure.

"Ninjutsu?" Yagura asked.

"Sure. Might as well do you the courtesy of outclassing you cleanly." Naruto grinned.

Stowing their weapons on their backs, they both had reason to feel confident; Ninjutsu was the most chakra-intensive of the ninja arts, and a Jinchuriki's normal chakra was far more potent than a generic ninja's. It also meant that their control was much more unstable, as the Biju's chakra would bolster their host's reserves to staggering heights. Any techniques that the two began to throw were likely to have a large area of effect, and a sizable knockback as well.

Both men wove through their hand seals, thought Naruto was a touch faster.

"Futon: Kamisori-Fu!"

"Suiton: Dangan Rendan!"

Naruto took the first of the series of water bullets in his chest as it exploded, ruining his clothing once again. Yagura managed to avoid most of the wind attack that Naruto had sent after him, though a shallow cut that ran along his forearm was a sign that he'd at least managed to do something.

"Come on...how many times am I gonna have to buy a new shirt and jacket? This is ridiculous."

Naruto stripped from the destroyed clothing, his scars revealed to the world once more. Layered muscles rippled underneath his skin, faded pink- and off-white marks denoting most of the places he'd been struck. The most visual were the two holes in his chest, one directly over the right lung and one at his solar plexus. There was also the one around his left arm, a full ring that the Mizukage looked at with a puzzled expression.

"This is what happens when a village doesn't trust its Kage." Naruto said, preparing himself. "Distrust breeds disloyalty. Disloyalty breeds dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction leads to suffering...though, in the end, I think they suffered more than I did. There's one thing I learned from the Kyuubi, only one, but it's the most important lesson of all."

His gathering chakra metered out, and he made the hand signs for his jutsu.

"Sometimes, in life, you have to kill. Sometimes, that killing is a chore. Sometimes, it's just a part of the mission. Sometimes, you might even get to do it for fun. But the best kind of killing happens when you get to hear your victim beg and scream for mercy...and I don't care who you are, or what your rank is. You'll be begging for death by the time I'm done with you."

"Maybe, if all you do is continue talking." The Mizukage countered. "Death would be a mercy, compared to that."

"Raiton: Futago Hebi."

A large snake came from each of Naruto's hands before they burrowed underground, the aptly-named Twin Snake technique beginning its work.

"Katon: Goukyaku." The Grand Fireball was massive, nearly four times as tall as Yagura.

"Kin: Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."

The massive summoning of clones left Naruto's chakra store vulnerable, but gave the _Futago Hebi_ nearly unlimited cover to strike with.

"Suiton: Sui-"

The jutsu was interrupted, water coming out of the Mizukage's mouth as he gasped in pain when the first of the twin snakes struck. Immediately followed by the second of the pair, the technique finished.

"Rasengan!" Naruto revved up his father's second signature technique, but when Yagura was struck, he melted into water.

"A Mizu Bunshin...behind cover of the Goukyaku."

"Correct." Yagura's voice came from behind him, and Naruto caught the kunai with the palm of his hand.

"Can't get away now, you slippery son of a bitch." The blond grinned, and a new _Rasengan_ went straight into Yagura's chest.

Though the Mizukage flipped over backward, when he stood again, the wound was fully healed.

"Oh, son of a bitch. Alright, fine."

Chakra chains exploded up from the earth, but Yagura managed to move around every one, nearly managing to land a hit on Naruto before the Konoha-nin could drop his control of the chains and dodge the blow.

"I liked you better when I was faster than you."

"Terribly sorry, but I like myself better like this. Suiton: Dainami!"

The Great Wave rose up from offshore, in the same place where the Ichibi had called forth its massive ball of sand, and Naruto winced; there was no way that wouldn't cause a huge amount of collateral. He couldn't see how thick it was, but from the height alone he could tell that it was an army-destroying technique.

The Kazekage claimed...what was it? Something like, 'I am invincible as long as I have sand?' Well, the same applies to me. As long as I have water, I cannot lose."

"Bullshit." Naruto charged headlong into the attack, Yagura at its base, intending to cause the technique to go off prematurely.

His plan succeeded, the wave crashing down before it grew any larger, and sweeping up plenty of the metal tools that Naruto had dropped earlier in the fight.

Naruto's second _Dai Raigen'ya_ of the day shot through the ocean water without remorse, racking Yagura's body with pain. Soon enough, the water subsided, leaving both ninja winded and unprepared for the continuation of their fight.

"Futon: Kamaitachi!" The Wind Scythe cut across their battlefield, buffeting Yagura into the cracked husk of a tree.

"Suiton: Issen Senbon!" A thousand water needles shot forward, and while Naruto managed to dodge most of them, he was struck by more than a few. The wounds healed over quickly, but Naruto still grunted from the exertion and the pain.

"Katon: Hono no Kozui!"

The sand and grass all around them caught fire, a disproportionate inferno shooting up around them. Calling forth a single shadow clone, and activating the _Kato Hikari no Jutsu,_ Naruto's clone ran forward when the flames went out. While the real Naruto was invisible, more clones came out from their various _henge_ to attack, and when Yagura took a lethal blow...he dissolved into water once again. Something connected with the blond's back, negating his invisibility technique and knocking him to the ground. His back against the fresh-burned earth, he saw the real Yagura standing over him.

"That jutsu makes you invisible, but it doesn't change the way light bends around you. Using it in a fire-lit area was a careless mistake when your enemy is alert."

"Goddammit...could've had you, too. Next time we meet, I'll remember not to use those diversionary Katon jutsu again."

"When I see you in the afterlife, I'll be sure to tell you the state of the world. Don't feel too bad. The life of shinobi is deception, and you were out-deceived. You've pushed me farther than anyone else before now, however. Take some measure of pride in that, with death."

Yagura raised his staff to strike, with Naruto on his knees, and the blonde Jinchuriki closed his eyes.

 _Sorry, Kakashi. Sorry, Sasuke. Sorry, Sakura._

"May the grave bring you the peace that no shinobi ever find in life." The Mizukage offered.

 _Sorry, Tenten. Sorry, Gaara. Sorry, Rei-chan and Kouga-kun._

Naruto tilted his head forward, cracking one eye open to look at Yagura before closing it again.

 _Sorry, Hiruzen-jiji. Sorry, Tsunade obaa-chan._

"Make it a clean cut, will you?"

 _Sorry, otou-san, okaa-san. Sorry, Oboro obaa-chan. Sorry, Josuke-jiji._

"Of course. You deserve nothing but respect, and honor. I will give you a quick death."

 _Sorry, Ero-sennin._

He was almost out of chakra, absolutely without enough to cast a jutsu strong enough to overcome Yagura. If he had just killed Utakata...no, there was no point in thinking about, 'what if,' situations now. It was over and done with. Yagura had won.

 _Sorry, Tayuya._

"Goodbye, Uzumaki Naruto."

He heard a scream, the sound of metal hitting flesh, and blood sprayed across his face...not his. Not his blood, not his body, not his voice.

"Sorry, piss-brain. You're not going anywhere without me."

His eyes snapped open, and he saw the hooked end of Yagura's staff deep in Tayuya's ribcage.

"Tayuya?"

"I was going to tell you, after the rebellion was over...I made up my mind. I wanted to be with you anyway, in spite of everything. I love you." She coughed, a new splash of blood hitting Naruto's face. "Sorry I didn't have the guts to make up my mind before now."

She slid off the staff, her back tearing open as the hook passed through it, and into Naruto's arms. As she fell, her lips brushed his, and for the first time in his life Naruto found that he didn't have anything to respond to her with. Even if he could have, there was no way she would have heard it. Her body was still warm, but Naruto had seen enough corpses to know.

Something inside of him was broken.

* * *

The monotonous dripping sound that Naruto had come to associate with his mind's inner workings, which took the form of a sewer system, had never felt so hollow. Walking without purpose, he wandered his way into the Kyuubi's chamber. The water beneath him had become blood-red, the demon seething in rage; their mental states were connected, so the Biju processed all the emotions that Naruto's brain was too numb to handle at the moment.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip, drip, dripping blood. Just like it was leaking from her chin.

 **"There's only one way to save her."** It said, looking at him with vengeance in its eyes.

"How?" There was no hope in his eyes, only fear. Only pain.

 **"You have to use my power. You have to undo the seal...but there are consequences."**

"I don't care." There was a sudden edge to Naruto's voice. He didn't care if it was a trick, and he didn't care about the consequences. He would do _anything._

 **"Remove the seal, and you can save her. Remove the seal, and you damn yourself to my corruption. Every time you use my power, you will lose part of yourself to me, until all that remains is an empty vessel for my rage and hatred...unless you somehow become able to make me submit to you. Not that it'll happen in your lifetime."** And on the day that Naruto failed to do that, it would have a human body and be able to eat ramen in the flesh. Finally, Kurama could have both freedom, and ramen. That day would be the most glorious one of its life.

"For her..." Anything. She had told him she loved him. Mei's words came back to his mind:

 _"Regrets, like death, are something that plague every ninja throughout their life. If she dies tomorrow, I know you'll regret not having loved her in the time you had her."_

The soon-to-be Mizukage was right. He regretted not having lived with his feelings more open, regretted not trusting Tayuya enough to believe that she wouldn't end up hurting him. He regretted that he'd given up so easily, and accepted death, even as he knew she was watching...and most of all, he regretted that she had chosen to die in his place. Unbidden, the world around him changed:

 _Two trails lay before the boy. The first, on his left, was illuminated by the dying firelight. It led to Konoha...home. It led to warmth, and love, and family. It led to friendship, kindness, and the welcome of a heroic man who had come to gain and lose so much. It led to power, unity, and peace. Tayuya was not by his side._

 _Unlike his first choice, the path on his right was one in darkness that led to the seal placed over the Kyuubi's cage. It led to cold, the dark, the unknown. It lead to the road of death, that he might become the grim successor to his father's title, "Bishounen Shinigami." It led to places Naruto could not see, did not know, did not **want**_ _to know. It led to violence and terror, to hatred and pain It led to fear, it lead to suffering, it lead to sacrifice._

 _The boy didn't know who asked, barely aware that it was happening at all...but when it spoke, he listened._

 _ **"Two roads lay before you,"** it said to him, just as it had been told many years ago, **"and you must choose one."**_

 _The monster on the edge of his senses was formless, shapeless...yet contained. What he failed to realize was that it was only a mirror._

 _ **"Do you choose the path of light, the path you know, the path of protection? Or will you follow me into shadow, no matter where I may lead?"**_

 _Before that voice had spoken, he never would have known his answer, but as soon as its questions ended he understood the answer he had known all along._

 _"For her." The beast and he were one, and he hungered._

Naruto's hands went to the padlock of the cage.

He never even saw the seal hit the ground.

 **"Zenton: Kensetsu."**

As Naruto vanished from his mindscape, the last chakra-based vestiges of his parents reappeared to reattach the seal.

 **"You wouldn't dare. Waste the final remains of your chakra, and give up the chance to see your son? Pathetic. Besides, I've already cast the technique."**

A third, unseen person's hand moved forward, putting the paper marker back in place, vanishing forever from the mindscape of the young ninja.

This world wasn't finished with Uzumaki Naruto yet.

* * *

As Naruto moved back into the world of the living, he saw what the Kyuubi had meant when it had cast a jutsu named, "Construct." Four of Naruto's own chakra chains held Yagura spread-eagled in the air, and the falx on his back came forward before increasing in size.

The chains drained Yagura's chakra and kept him perfectly immobilized, unable to cast any jutsu.

"Your death will give her life." Naruto intoned, blood shining on his face in the early dusk. "Your death will give this land life."

The fire had been taken out of him.

This was not Naruto.

"One for the village...the village you served, the village you failed. Jakirigakure no Sato." He swung, and Yagura's left arm was gone before he could register it.

"Two for the people...the people you murdered, the people you betrayed. The innocent lives lost in your madness." The right leg was cut off next, Yagura's body beginning to tear in half from the strain.

"Three for the land...the land you broke, the land that trusted you, the land you call your home." A chain wrapped around the Mizukage's middle, holding him still as his right arm was cut off.

"Four for myself. I, the one who fought you. I, the one who should have died. I, the one who will kill you." With a cry of pain, Yagura lost his final limb, leaving nothing but a torso and head.

It was over, and the whole world knew it. Tayuya's death in his place had broken Naruto enough that he would kill his enemy mercilessly. Looking at the scene before them, they knew Kirigakure's future; the rebels had won.

"And five...for her. To her, I owe my life. To her, I owe everything. To her, who I'll be joining soon." Yagura stared at Naruto the entire time, and the blond kept eye contact without flinching. He had no conscience in this moment; the Mizukage's death would never haunt his dreams.

"For her, the only one I love."

The blade swung true, and Yagura's severed head tumbled to the ground. His eyes still open as the light began to leave them, and a calm expression on his face; this was the fate of all ninja, in the end. Death was their reward, the final gift in their life of killing was to be killed.

Naruto opened his mouth to scream, but a demonic roar came out instead.

As night continued to fall, the last of the light vanishing over the horizon, rain began to pour down.


	15. The Mercy of a Dying God

**I would have had this chapter out much earlier today, if not for the fact that my computer crashed and I lost 2,000 words off of it. Shame on me for not saving more often...though I doubt much will change. I hope the hours spent with this chapter unpublished gave you all time to worry about what happens next!**

 **I told you, trust in my unstoppable Bullshit no Jutsu to save the day! Somehow! Maybe?**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. Lord Bedhead: No, this fic isn't over! That would be a very...well, actually, it would be in keeping with my style of writing. However, fear not...you'll see.**

 **2\. OneLunchMan: I had Tayuya's interception of a lethal attack planned out from just about the beginning, as far as forcing them to realize and act on their feelings for each other. I told myself I'd do it for this Kiri arc, and then it was just deciding what Yugito/Kirabi/Utakata/Yagura's roles would be.**

 **I toyed with the idea of Kirabi killing her and making Naruto go berserk to kill all four of the others, but that's just...even crazed, Naruto isn't that bad. I have to write within the limitations of the characters, and in this chapter I break down exactly why Naruto ended up beaten by Yagura.**

 **3\. animeficfan: the first part of my response to OneLunchMan covers the answer to your review.**

 **4\. gunslinger20121: Why would I make you read that? Because I am a terrible human being, and I find it fun.**

 _ **Within the Straws I Grasp**_ **has now almost reached 200 followers and 100 favorites! Thank you for all of your support!**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

Naruto stood outside the small room, surrounded by more supporters than he knew what to do with. He was staring at the door with a blank expression on his face. Even though he wasn't listening, he heard Mei speak.

"Trust in Jiraiya. He knows what he's doing." The redheaded woman said quietly, her hand on his shoulder as she spoke.

"It shouldn't have come to that. If I'd just killed Utakata, instead of sealing him away, then I would have had almost twice as much chakra to work with. I still would have won, and Tayuya wouldn't have..." His eyes didn't leave the door.

"Just for the record, I _very_ much appreciate that I'm not dead." The aforementioned Rokubi Jinchuriki said, sitting on a bench nearby. "Just thought I should mention that."

"Listen, gaki. What's done is done. That white-haired pervert is one crazy son of a bitch, but there's nobody in the world who's as good at Fuinjutsu as he is." Zabuza said, his gaze shifting between the blond boy and the door that held his interest.

The Kyuubi's words haunted him.

 _ **"You will lose part of yourself to me...will you follow me into shadow, no matter where I may lead?"**_

He had agreed, he had made the deal. His chosen fate awaited...but that didn't matter to him. All that mattered was that there was a chance Jiraiya could save Tayuya from her death. Conveniently, it also solved the problem of Yagura's butchering at Naruto's hands. It was a known, though incredibly risky, way to bring back those who had been clinically dead for a very short amount of time.

They were going to make Tayuya into the new Sanbi Jinchuriki.

After killing Yagura, Naruto had used the _Enma no Nijuu-Roku Kanadzuchi_ on Tayuya, the seal preventing her body from moving any more toward death. She would remain that way until he finally unsealed her, at which point they would know for sure whether or not he'd suceeded in sealing her early enough. Thankfully, since she was dead, the chakra cost had been minimal and he'd been able to draw from his own reserves rather than the Kyuubi's chakra.

"Naruto...that girl was one of Orochimaru's guards, and she's trained with you and Jiraiya for a long time." Temari said. "She'll be okay."

"She's worked alongside a Jinchuriki. She'll make a good one." Yugito offered, having been awoken from her comatose state.

For all his dense cluelessness, Naruto had a knack for surrounding himself with women, all of them older than he was; Temari had turned sixteen earlier in the year, while Yugito was twenty-seven and Mei was twenty-nine. As someone who'd gotten used to being the oldest in a group, during his two years of being held back in the academy, it was a mildly rankling thought that he was now the youngest one present.

Well, no, that wasn't true. Kankuro, Gaara, and Haku were all younger than he was.

Small comfort.

Jiraiya was working in that room with a seal-master from Kiri, and Kankuro as well; the Suna puppeteer's rough knowledge of basic Fuinjutsu would take some of the strain away from the other two, who would be doing most of the work, and reduce the chance of lethal consequences for any of the other people in the room. It went unspoken that he would be risking his own life for the seal as well.

The door opened, and the three came out. Jiraiya looked to his blond student before closing his eyes and exhaling.

"There's nothing else that we can do for her...it's all on you, kid. Shut the door behind yourself." If Tayuya's Biju-filled corpse went berserk, or began to erupt from the unstable chakra, then the dead man's switch he'd sealed into the walls would take care of it...though it was probably best not to let Naruto think those options were possible.

"Good luck, Naruto-koi." Mei added her own suffix of endearment for him, squeezing his shoulder as he began to move away.

Walking, he thought back to his words before Yagura's death.

 _"To her, who I'll be joining soon."_

It was meant as a declaration of suicide, that he would follow her into death, but this was a better alternative. This way, they could live together again.

* * *

Fuinjutsu script was scrawled throughout the room, and as Naruto began to charge his chakra, it raced and condensed around her stomach and her cursed seal.

He wove through the hand signs slowly, making absolutely certain that his slightly-shaking hands didn't falter in their work.

Dog. Tiger. Rat. Horse. Dog. Rabbit. Dragon. Rabbit. Tiger. Monkey. Boar. Ox. Dragon. Ox. Dog. Rat. Horse. Boar.

"Kai." He released the Twenty-Six Hammers of Enma, and watched as nothing happened. No great gasping breath, no lurch to one side or the other, no consciousness.

Then, he saw the skin around her ribcage begin to heal. Crushed bones mending back into place, lung reinflating, the thin layer of fat and muscle recovering itself.

"Naruto...you?"

"We won." He sat down next to her, holding her head in his lap. "Thanks to you, we won."

"I'm glad...told you...felt." Though she wasn't saying all the words, he understood.

"Me too. I love you, Tayuya."

"Love you...shithead. Nap-time now..."

She slumped back, unconscious in Naruto's arms, but he could still feel her pulse.

She'd made it.

They'd done it.

He could deal with the fallout of his actions, and their political ramifications, later. All that mattered was that she was alive, he'd saved her. She would stay with him, in this life, forever.

Nobody had ever heard of a Jinchuriki dying of old age, after all.

Picking her up, he carried her out, and looked down to the base of her neck before he opened the door to bring her out to the waiting world; the curse mark Orochimaru had placed on her, however long ago it had been, was completely erased. In its place was a tattoo-like symbol mirrored on the Uzushio headband that Naruto wore, the Uzumaki crest that he would always carry with him.

With that, he slid open the door.

* * *

"Oh, fuck...my head..." Tayuya said, shaking off her grogginess and starting to wake up. The last thing she remembered was falling asleep in Naruto's arms. And before that...pain. Her body had practically moved on its own, not that she would have been unwilling to step in the way of that blow. Hand moving up to her ribcage, she felt complete skin there, not even a scar. Had it all been a dream?

Tayuya looked around; she was laying in a hospital bed, dozens of get-well cards and letters standing on the table next to her, and there was a heavy weight across the top of her legs.

"Hey, Naruto, wake up. I don't care _how_ much you wanna be on top of me right now, but this definitely isn't the time or place."

He snored, nuzzling deeper and mumbling something into one of her legs.

"Wake up, goddammit. I don't have all day, piss-brain."

Still nothing. If anything, he seemed to only shift deeper, trying to dive beneath the loose clothing she wore.

"Don't you fuckin' dare. I swear to god if you start trying to eat me out in your sleep I'm gonna cut out your fuckin' tongue."

No response.

Normally, the irritation would have caused her cursed seal to begin acting up...but Orochimaru's mark did nothing. Her hand went to its placement, juxtaposed between her throat and collarbone, and she couldn't feel the cruel chakra that emanated from it at all times.

Was it gone?

"Nnn...Tayuya-chan..." Naruto muttered in his sleep. "...happy..."

"Wake the fuck up!" Tayuya bucked her legs, naruto's upper body flying off of them and sending his chair over backwards, causing him to crash into the ground. "Oops. Hope you know I'm not sorry."

"Huh?" Naruto bolted up, and Tayuya didn't think she'd ever seen Naruto give a smile that happy in all their time together. "You're awake!"

He grabbed ahold of her, lifting her up and pulling her into a hug.

"We did it! We made it! Oh, man, that was...wow! We were all really worried about you, Tayuya-chan!"

"Okay, piss-brain, what the hell do you mean, 'we made it?'"

"Well, after you got hit, and I killed Yagura, the only way we could keep you alive was to...um...uh..."

"To _what._ What did you do?"

"I just put the seal on you that kept you from completely dying. Jiraiya is the one who did most of the Fuinjutsu legwork."

"What. Did. You. Do?"

"We may have, uh, made you the new Sanbi Jinchuriki. We weren't sure it'd work, a Biju sealing when the target is already grown is a very risky thing to attempt...but apparently, something to do with being a teenager makes it easier? Probably all the other bullshit that comes with adolescence."

"Wait, wait, wait a minute here. You put the Sanbi inside of me? I'm a Jinchuriki now? Are you shitting me?"

"Yeah, kinda. Little bit. Please don't kill me?"

Tayuya sighed.

This was going to take a lot of getting used to.

* * *

The festival was in its second day, and would continue through the end of the week. It had begun with Mei's official coronation as the Godaime Mizukage, and Kirigakure celebrated a final end to its bloody rebellion. Not the least of those who were honered were Naruto and Tayuya, granted diplomatic immunity for their service to the war effort.

Still...Naruto had grown up with the elderly Sandaime practically raising him. He knew politics would never be so black-and-white an issue. While he'd fought for the winning side, they'd been no more than a powerful, vocal minority whose words didn't speak for the whole of Kiri. Mei's word was law, but if Naruto ever came across a Kiri-nin in the field then he doubted they would be so benevolent. He'd murdered their previous leader in cold blood, brutally hacking off his limbs before decapitating him with the onyx blade currently on his back, and had done it in plain view of almost every ninja Kiri possessed.

Trusting in the goodness of people had never done him much good, he mused, thinking to the scars etched into his body. That was a flaw for a supposed Hokage hopeful-in-training...not that the issue would have mattered to him. Naruto had a knack for avoiding his detractor's statements, even if the one antagonizing him was himself.

Something about ignorance and bliss, as the saying went? Naruto wasn't stupid, but he was still hot-headed and tended not to think through all the actions he committed to; the most obvious was his use of Katon jutsu against Yagura, burning up his chakra reserves, but he had a history for those sorts of decisions, and he vowed that he would never do something that could end up endangering Tayuya ever again.

He thought back to the former Mizukage's death at his hands, how he'd used the Kyuubi's power before it had suddenly cut itself off...but what he'd been given had been just enough. The cost of using it, in his chakra-exhausted state, had been relatively minor; his ears had tilted back and lengthened their canals, lengthening a quarter of an inch and tapering into a soft point. The keratin in his nails had hardened, turning them into natural claws.

While the changes were visible, and moderately noticeable, he didn't mind; anything was preferable to allowing Tayuya to die.

"I meant what I said." Tayuya told him as they walked together. Hand in hand, they moved down the street and enjoyed the kind smiles that went their way.

Even though Tayuya knew that most of those smiles were for Naruto, as the hero who took down the tyrannical Yagura, she knew that some of them came from people who had seen her move to intercept the blow that would have killed him.

The blow that _did_ kill _her._

That was something she was still struggling to wrap her head around. She, for a few minutes, had actually been dead. She had died, and been resurrected with the only way known to the shinobi world: they'd taken the Biju from Yagura's corpse and sealed it inside of her. In the process, it had destroyed her cursed seal, possibly because Orochimaru's intention was to simulate the power a Biju gave to its Jinchuriki...she wouldn't complain about that.

The seal had made her feel dirty, used, and even though she knew that she was well out of range, it had always been nagging at the back of her mind that maybe, just maybe, he could take control of her body and force her to kill Naruto. She didn't have to worry about that ever again.

She could deal with the real fallout of having become a Jinchuriki later, once they were back in Uzushio. The real process of it had escaped her understanding, but the general explanation was that a Biju's chakra adapted to the human it was sealed in nearly instantly, healing them and pumping chakra through their system to force the heart and other vital organs to being working again. While it didn't always work, sometimes causing the new Jinchuriki to go berserk or simply remain dead, Jiraiya's sealing prowess had allowed him to succeed in the endeavor. That was twice, now, that he'd saved her life.

Grateful as she was for that, she couldn't help her irritation at that; she was supposed to be strong enough that she didn't _need_ to be saved...but, then again, so was Naruto, and she had watched their fight.

If Kirabi hadn't been there, then Yagura would have died very quickly; Naruto had dominated the beginning of their fight, the two-on-one odds not affecting him nearly as poorly as it should have. Sealing Utakata, he consistently claimed, had drained half of his chakra for just one technique. Then, after the former Mizukage had released his Biju and Gaara had gone into full possession mode, Naruto had done...something. It had to have been the Kyuubi's chakra, and the sheer amount it took must have taken a severe toll on his body. After that, Yagura's return to his full mental and physical abilities, fully healed, put Naruto at a disadvantage that he couldn't totally overcome. Naruto liked to stealth-kill, despite his Ninjutsu capabilities, and moving away from the open field where they'd fought would have put innocents at risk.

So Naruto had been outpowered and worn down, leaving nobody surprised that he hadn't managed to keep up a sustained fight against three separate Jinchuriki...and when the time came for the killing blow, not even Jiraiya had stepped in.

Tayuya understood, now, what people meant when they said that some things were worse than death. She was the only one who had been so unafraid of the reaper that she had moved to intercept the attack that would have killed Naruto. The realization in that moment was that her love for him had been stronger than her fear of dying. Her fear of losing him had been more powerful than her will to live.

She had a discolored patch of skin on her ribcage where the staff had torn through her, healed over by the Sanbi's chakra but left as a scar; it would be a permanent reminder of just how far she was willing to go to defend him. Knowing Naruto, it would probably serve as nothing but a reminder that he hadn't been strong enough to win on his own.

Those thoughts were for another time, though. For now, they had a festival to enjoy, and people to greet, and training to resume.

* * *

"They deserve their happiness." Mei said, looking down at the pair from her office in the Mizukage tower.

"And you do not?" Gaara said, standing beside her.

The pair had been working out a diplomatic agreement, with trade rights and a nonaggression pact among other details.

"I didn't say that."

"No, but you implied." The Kazekage would have laughed, but chose not to. "I'm surprised, I would have thought a highly-supported candidate who has now become Mizukage would have had many suitors...but even your guards don't seem to stick around long."

"When I was young, Kirigakure had a tradition where the members of each graduating class were paired, and each pair was pitted in a fight to the death. My partner and I confessed our love for one another, and I killed him in one blow. Ever since then...nobody has wanted to be near me."

"The Ichibi was planted inside of me while my mother was still pregnant with me, and she died in childbirth as a result. At the age of four, my father sent my uncle to assassinate me. After that night, I was convinced that the only way to survive in this world was to fight only for myself. To love only myself. I terrorized my siblings and my village for ten years until the invasion of Konoha, where Naruto beat me entirely on his own, and...how do you say it, 'forced his will upon me?' After that fight, I saw that I was wrong, and I began to make amends. I see no reason why your personal life can't be the same."

"But instead of becoming a Kage, the end result would be finding love. Genuine love, like those two have..." Mei let out a long, dreamy sigh, seeming to deflate as her face settled into a pout. "I'm happy for them, but I can't help feeling a little jealous. Even you, Kazekage-dono, must have someone. Don't you?"

"Please, just Gaara is fine. That's how all of my village knew me before I was their leader, and that's how all of them know me now. My position in the village doesn't reflect how people should act around me."

While she disagreed with him, she wouldn't argue.

"Alright then...Gaara. Still, my point stands. Surely you, too, have someone special in your life?"

"Just women interested in the power of being my wife, or girls with the equivalent to a schoolyard crush. Nothing serious, and none worth pursuing seriously in turn."

"Hmm...not even a tall, buxom redhead who just won a war thanks to your best friend down there?"

Both turned their heads to look at the other, no longer staring out the window.

"Getting to know you, personally, would take precedence before I could make that decision."

"The age gap doesn't bother you?"

"Shinobi carve out a life in the midst of death all around them, and there's no telling how or when that life might end. It's better to accept what can be given or taken, rather than spending your life wishing that something else had come out differently. Still, if you'd like, I'd be more than willing to accompany you through the festival."

Outside the door, Ao and Zabuza looked to one another and nodded before vanishing; while eavesdropping was always frowned upon in polite company, they would always be on high alert whenever their Kage was involved.

The _Kirigakure no Oni_ grinned beneath his armor-tape mask...it was just like he'd told Tayuya.

 _"Sure, being together and not having worked through your problems could come back to bite your ass in the long run, but you don't have to fly solo, either. Nobody will tell you two that you can't help each other out of your own little private hells. You might even find that it brings you a lot closer to take your burdens and share them."_

It looked like the new Sanbi Jinchuriki wasn't the only redhead who'd end up taking that advice.


	16. Resolved Rebellion, Return to Uzushio

**Hey, look at that! Even though I got delayed seven hours because of unavoidable family bullshit, I still managed to pump out a second chapter before I go to sleep in about half an hour. Good shit, man.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. OneLunchMan: What else could you expect from the world's most unpredictable ninja?**

 **2\. gunslinger20121: Yeah, I thought I would try my hand at something different. I like the idea of NaruMei, but this is a NaruTayu story, and I couldn't just leave her unmarried when her _only dream in life_ is to get married and have a happily-ever-after. She deserves love. Gaara deserves it, too; hopefully they'll be able to undo each other's mental damages, like Naruto and Tayuya could end up doing for one another.**

 **3\. draven32: While nothing like that is in the works as far as this story goes, it would honestly be very plausible given that all we really know is how proficient they were in Fuinjutsu. Also, most stories I've read where Yagura isn't around don't involve a new Sanbi Jinchuriki, just doing what canon did and leaving it on its own. I figured, why not have an excuse to work it in?**

 **We've hit 100 favorites! Thank you very much for all your support, and as always:**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

Jiraiya was silent, having secluded himself even as the festival surrounded him on all sides. He'd been useless, in a time when Naruto had needed him the most; Tayuya had jumped forward, but it shouldn't have come to that. He'd been frozen, he hadn't moved to attack Yagura from behind. He hadn't summoned any of his toads, hadn't entered into Sage Mode, hadn't done _anything._ He'd been worthless, no matter how much nobody wanted to let him forget his work in keeping Tayuya alive.

The scene had been terrifying, a practical scenario repetition of the Kyuubi attack nearly sixteen years ago. In his mind, they might as well have been one and the same: two of his students, dying in order to eliminate the threat that opposed them both. Naruto, the spitting image of his legendary father, and Tayuya, who could pass for a young Kushina any time she wanted to. The flashbacks they gave him any time they were near one another, whether they were arguing about the mundane or laughing with each other about some joke or circumstance...they were beyond painful, the ache in his chest a relentless desire to go back to older days. Better days.

Days where he had acted when Tsunade and Orochimaru had been in grave danger. Days where he had been able to talk and laugh and enjoy time with his students, Shizune included; while he'd hated her uncle, he bore no ill will against the girl herself, and had always treated her just as unbiased as he did with Kushina or Minato. While the future Hokage had been his favorite student, and his true successor, he hadn't taught the girls any less than Minato.

Perhaps, if he'd truly equalized his time with them, then two of the three would still be walking and Naruto would still have his parents.

Whenever his loved ones were on the line, he could never do anything. That was why he maintained such a distance from Konoha at almost all times...if they were going to die whether or not he was there, then there was no point in trying to save them. That was a painful lesson he'd had to learn during the Second Great War, when his parents died beside him and he'd been unable to prevent it.

His mother had shielded him, her last act giving Jiraiya enough time to use the most powerful technique he'd ever created: the _Katon: Jigoku Arashi._ It had eliminated a full half-mile of terrain, burnt countless enemies to cinders, and left Jiraiya alone to mourn his parents' corpses. He'd never used the jutsu again.

Unbidden, a knock came from outside his room's door.

"Come in, it's unlocked."

"Geez, Ero-sennin, I would've thought you'd be happy as hell with all the booze they've got flowing around here. Really, lighten up." Naruto entered the room.

"How can you say that? You almost-"

"Ah, ah, not another word, you sleazy pervert. Yeah, it happened. I decided to move on, and get stronger, so that it never happens again. Tayuya-chan has, too. Doesn't make any sense for you to get all morose on us now."

"Jackass...eh, fine. Who knows, I might even enjoy myself!"

Naruto was right. There was no point in worrying about the past, and how badly it could have gone. His job was to teach Naruto everything he could, so that when it came time for the Akatsuki to begin moving once again, the blond would be able to handle himself without worrying about how strong he was.

After all, Yagura might have been a monstrosity, but Jiraiya's informant in the Akatsuki had told him exactly who was in that group besides Uchiha Itachi, Hoshigaki Kisame, and that Orochimaru had been a former member.

The last time he had seen it rain as hard as it did when Yagura died, he'd heard that Yahiko's rebellion against Hitokage no Hanzo, leader of Amegakure, had been decimated almost entirely. Its remnants had become the Akatsuki, though Jiraiya hadn't learned about that until many years later...and the name of Hanzo was one that brought fear into any ninja that lived during the Second and Third Wars.

The Salamander-summoning ninja was touted as one of the strongest shinobi in history, alongside legendary names like Uchiha Madara, the Shodaime Kazekage, and Namikaze Minato. It had taken an entire army to fight the man to a standstill, and the only four who walked away from that battle were the newly-christened Sannin and Hanzo himself...but at some point within the last five years, he'd been assassinated, with every relative of his family hunted down and killed regardless of their age.

That had been the work of Pein: leader of the Akatsuki and wielder of the Rinnegan...Nagato. A name that hadn't left the aging man's lips in a long time. A name whose owner had fought for peace, and justice, and kindness to the world. A name that no longer existed, lost to the annals of history, and that had been replaced by the agony in his heart.

On the day Nagato had died, Pein had been born, and he had determined for himself that the world should be scarred with his name.

Shelving those thoughts for the moment, however, Jiraiya decided to relax a little bit. The life of a ninja couldn't be _all_ missions and chakra exhaustion and constant training.

You had to enjoy life, too, or else it couldn't really be called living.

* * *

The festival had come and gone. Today, October tenth, was Naruto's birthday; a perfect time to say goodbye, and to end their celebration on a high note.

It was finally time to return to Uzushio, though nobody would ever have said that the rebellion's heroes would ever overstay their welcome. After a slew of goodbyes, and a long list of thanks from all the ninja who'd fought for the rebels that had included a few jutsu scrolls for Naruto and Tayuya to learn...it was finally time to go.

"We'll miss you, gaki." Zabuza said. "Come back and visit some time, eh? You did promise me a Kenjutsu match, so you're not allowed to die until I can beat you into the ground. You either," he looked to Tayuya, "you gotta keep his dumb ass in line and make sure he doesn't do anything like...yeah."

"Zabuza-sama, are you getting sentimental? This isn't like you." Haku teased.

"Shut up."

"Ten thousand apologies, Zabuza-sama. Truly, I tell you, my sorrow knows no bounds." Everyone in attendance knew that it would happen again. And again. If Haku ever ran out of numbers, he could just start again from the bottom.

Jiraiya had summoned Gamatatsu earlier, and given the small toad an inverted summoning seal to place on the ground in Uzushio. He possessed the matching seal, and they waited.

Gaara and his siblings stood with the Kiri ninja, a composed smile on the Kazekage's face which left little doubt about how he felt. He stood beside Mei, much closer than the older woman had deemed proper when she spoke with Naruto, and it didn't take long for the blond to figure out what was going on between them; grinning, he was about to open his mouth before Kirabi spoke.

"We'll be heading back to Kumo. Miss Three, Mister Nine, come and see us soon though!"

"Kirabi, by god, shut the hell up."

"That's mean, Yugi-chan! Don't be dissin' on my rappin' plan!"

"If you don't stop right now I'll tell your brother about the time that you tried to-"

"Okay! Okay!" The burly man said.

"Anyway...he's right, you two. I'm pretty upset that I didn't get to take you out for a test drive." The blonde woman smirked. "When one or more of us is in an area, it's pretty self-explanatory that we'd want to see who's stronger, and help each other become even more powerful."

"Yeah. I'm definitely going to need a lot of help learning how to do this."

"Our bond transcends nations." Utakata added, his old bubble-blowing pipe having been replaced by the new one in his hand. "We are all one another's brothers and sisters, and while we may fight..."

"We're still family. So whenever you're done doing whatever it is you're up to, come pay us a visit. I'll be looking forward to it." Yugito finished.

"I'll be working on training my speed, Nine. Yo daddy was the fastest, but you might be the next in line." True to his word, Kirabi had kept the scar that Naruto had cut across his face, the left side of his beard now with a line through it that would never grow back. Kirabi had called it a reminder never to underestimate his fellow Jinchuriki again, no matter the supposed difference in their power levels. Naruto appreciated that; he hated being taken lightly.

"See you all later," Naruto said. "I don't know when we'll be back, but-"

There it went.

* * *

The drastic change in scenery was apparent, and while the lurching feeling of being summoned went away after a few moments, it still left Naruto's head spinning.

"Naruto-onii! Tayuya-onee! Jiraiya ero-san!"

"My reputation is ruined!" The white-haired Sannin cried out as Naruto scooped up his pseudo-siblings.

"You two have gotten bigger, huh?"

"Yeah, now we look like we could be ten years old, huh?" Rei said, a big smile on her face as Naruto hoisted both herself and her little brother onto his shoulders.

"Well, you sure feel like it!" Naruto joked, followed by Tayuya playfully swatting the back of his head.

"Don't be an ass, piss-brain."

Months ago, he'd taken that to be an insult. Now, it almost seemed like a term of endearment to him.

"The hitai-ate looks good on you." Oboro walked forward, cupping her grandson's face with her right hand. "You've grown into a strong man...Josuke would have been proud to call you his grandson."

There was no way to measure how heavily that praise weighed on Naruto's mind. It meant more than the world to him, to hear something like that.

"Thanks, obaa-chan."

"So, tell me...how did it go? What did you do? I want to know _everything._ Should I be expecting great-grandchildren soon?"

"NO!" Both teens yelled at once, the twins leaping away as Oboro and Jiraiya began to laugh.

"Don't worry, Oboro obaa-chan, we'll tell you everything...but you may not like it."

The Uzumaki woman steeled herself. If the optimistic Naruto, of all people, was telling her that it would be hard to hear...she wouldn't enjoy it. As the tale of their time in Kirigakure continued onward, she knew she was right.

It wasn't Naruto's fault. He'd effectively fought four different opponents, as Yagura had possessed different ability levels before and after the Sanbi's emergence.

Still, after seeing the scar over Tayuya's ribcage and watching Jiraiya's _Shichidaime Gama Sennin no Fuin_ appear on her belly when she channeled her chakra, it was a hard pill to swallow. Jiraiya's mastery in Fuinjutsu outclassed even her own, and the Seal of the Seventh Great Toad Sage was pure artistry.

Her granddaughter-in-law, however presumptive that title might be, had died and been brought back to life. She had died to save Naruto. Naruto had nearly died trying to save her. The feelings that they held for one another had, very nearly, cost the pair their lives.

In a minute or two, she would recover, but the knowledge that she had very nearly lost her last directly-related kinsman was a hard blow.

"...and then we came back." Naruto said. "So that's everything."

Training would resume in the next couple days. While the trio had been relaxing throughout the festival, they would want a couple days to wind down from being in foreign territory and a former live-combat zone.

"Well, ignoring everything else: happy birthday, Naruto-mago!"

Training could _definitely_ wait.

* * *

Three more months had come and gone, and time had passed for a year since Naruto and Tayuya had left with Jiraiya on their training trip in Uzushiogakure.

"I think we should go." Naruto said, speaking of Kirabi and Yugito's offer to visit Kumogakure for an extended period of time. "Nobody is better to teach a Jinchuriki than another Jinchuriki."

"And I think we should stay." Jiraiya argued. "Kumo is the most aggressive nation in existence. They tried to kidnap your mother, and that was the day your father became known as the Kiroi Senko. They instigated the Third Great War, and almost started another one shortly after the Kyuubi attack when they tried to kidnap the Hyuuga clan's heiress. Grass is green, water is wet, and Kumo is not a nation to be trusted."

That sort of point-blank, black-and-white operation mentality had never sat well with Naruto. He refused to believe that anything he heard from just one person could be right, unless they had the full authority on the subject at hand. And, as far as morality went, Jiraiya was far from an expert. Naruto still remembered the, "instant trifecta," he'd come across while they were searching for Tsunade to come back to Konoha; Jiraiya, with a cup of sake in one hand and a bottle in the other, with a woman on each arm and an empty wallet that had formerly held Naruto's rent money.

That had been fun to explain to the brothel's owner, who had let it slide prior to insistence that he pay double the next month.

"Well, then I'm going anyway. You can stay and train the twins with Oboro obaa-chan."

"Oh, so I'm chopped liver now, huh?" Tayuya said indignantly, side-eyeing her boyfriend with more than a little bit of irritation.

"No, I just kind of assumed that you would be coming with me. Am I wrong?"

"Well...no." Wherever he went, she would follow. The fact held true in reverse.

If pressed, they could always just say they were still following Tsunade's orders.

"I can't just have you go AWOL, Naruto. Do you realize the kind of disaster that could be if Tsunade ever finds out? I already pushed my limits with her before we left last year. She'd have my ass on a silver platter and my head mounted on her wall."

"And you'd probably thank her for it." Naruto mocked his teacher.

"Goddammit, Naruto, I'm not going to let something happen to you! The only way I can manage that is to keep you hidden away here, where no enemy ninja would ever think to come looking for you!" Jiraiya threw his hands up in exasperation and rage.

"So I just sit here and rot, training myself? I understand the need to be strong, but I can't advance if you and Oboro obaa-chan are the only ones teaching me anything! Besides, it's not like there's much you can do in the way of teaching me how to control the Kyuubi's chakra, or Tayuya with the Sanbi...Yugito-chan and Kirabi? They can! Kumo's famous for their Kenjutsu abilities, too, so I could definitely improve by training with them!"

"Naruto, please, just-" Jiraiya began before being interrupted.

"No. There's a line between protecting me so that I can train in peace, and keeping me holed up in a place where I can't get a sense of how the world operates outside of Konoha's walls. Sometimes, you have to protect people, and sometimes you have to let them decide whether they think they're strong enough to protect themselves. I killed a Kage, goddammit! I think that speaks to my ability to protect myself!"

He had a point, even if that kill had only happened under dubious circumstances that would hopefully never repeat themselves.

"I'm gonna go on my own training trip, and it's gonna be a million times better than this one! A training trip extravaganza, with blackjack and hookers!"

"Naruto...think about that last word for a second."

"Hey, I never said they'd be for me. Besides, isn't your birthday in like...two days? I'm sure we could make it to Yugakure in time to celebrate."

"I hadn't thought about that. You're right, we could." The two were making a show of not caring about what their teacher was telling them.

"Pay attention, for god's sake!" Jiraiya yelled.

"No, I think they should go." Oboro said, walking toward the trio. It was late at night, the twins were fast asleep, and she had heard them from a decent distance away. "Nobody ever learns to have a balanced view of the world by remaining in one or two places all their life. You owe it to them to not keep them limited to the things we can teach...besides, if all six of us go, then there's a little less risk. Safety in numbers, after all."

"And the twins?"

"You saw what they could do, that day when they came out of the Labyrinth. They could easily match any Chunin, and many Jounin. They're only nine years old, but their age has nothing to do with their talent. They were raised in a time when all the world was an active war zone, and they could be required to kill at any point in their lives. They will be able to defend themselves."

Jiraiya had to admit that was true.

"You know what? Fine. But the _second_ this starts to go south, don't any of you dare come to me and say that I was right."

"Wouldn't dream of it, Ero-sennin." Naruto grinned cheekily, keeping the anger from making its way to his face.

Come hell or high water, he would learn to control his inner demon.


	17. To Kumogakure, With Love

**My word count is a little low this chapter, but honest to god I'm stuck in a rut and I figure it's better to get you the chapter than make you wait even _longer_ to have it come to you.**

 **Also: I'm sorry about not putting a chapter out yesterday. My little sister graduated, and I didn't get back home until well after midnight; there wasn't really anything I could do about it. Still, you all have my apologies.**

 **Also, I may be slowing down my writing schedule due to work. I'm not certain, and I'll still _attempt_ to get out a chapter a day, but if it doesn't happen then you can expect one the day after.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. OneLunchMan: Sort of, I guess? I had planned for Suna, but then I figured, "why not have them fight in the Kiri rebellion," which led to, "how about Yugito and Kirabi are there," and that became, "have Naruto and Tayuya go to Kumo because a full-possession-capable Jinchuriki will be able to help them learn how to control their Biju." So now, the only one left out of the fun is Iwa. I don't think most people are too sad about that, besides maybe seeing Kurotsuchi?**

 **I do like Kurotsuchi.**

 **2\. gunslinger20121: Well, you say that, and I agree with you, but...where are Jinchuriki ever welcome? In canon, it really seems like there's a huge prejudice against them most of the time, until they do something that makes them deserving of heroic praise.**

 **3\. Winter Arctica: Yeah...I know. However, since I've basically been insulting Kishimoto in about every other AN I've put out with this story, I'm not too concerned. I'm very, very suspicious/99% certain that by the end of the series Kishimoto was flying by the seat of his pants and he didn't know _what_ the fuck to do. There's so much stupid bullshit that goes on.**

 **I try to make my characters believable, and in my opinion a PTSD-laden Jiraiya would be entirely believable in the context of his life, even in canon. The same for Gaara/Mei, because Gaara's words in chapter 15 are pretty much hammered into everyone's heads by all the huge plot points in canon and all the death that happens in the series. So if they believe that they can make their relationship with one another work, in spite of politics and distance and age, then there's no reason not to go for it.**

 **On the one hand, I was a little conflicted, because in an earlier chapter Jiraiya describes Dan as, "predatory," for being interested in a much younger Tsunade. On the other hand, I think everybody agrees that Mei really deserves love, and Gaara does too. So I stood at a crossroads, and just kinda...let it happen. Oh well. Stone me for a heathen if you must.**

 **4\. ArtanisRose: You hit the nail on the head. Sometimes, in writing, you have to make things difficult for the protagonist...but if the antagonist is the only one getting buffs, then you fall into the DBZ trap of constantly needing to escalate. So, for a change, I decided to make things difficult for the Akatsuki too.**

 _ **Within the Straws I Grasp**_ **has now passed 200 followers, and 100 favorites! Thank you for your patience and support!**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"You did what?" E, the Yondaime Raikage, was in his office. Kirabi and Yugito were giving him a mission report.

"I told 'em they could come any time, and listen to Kirabi's rhyme!"

"So you're saying that you extended an open invitation. To a foreign village's Jinchuriki. To come inside Kumo."

"Well, you sound mad, that makes me sad. Even so, bro, It'll be a while before they show. Couple months, maybe mo', I dunno?"

"They also wouldn't actually have to come inside Kumogakure proper, until you're satisfied in knowing that they aren't a threat. Kirabi has the Unraikyo Valley, remember?" Yugito spoke up.

"No, I would rather they just remain under loose Anbu surveillance. You said Jiraiya was with them?"

"Yes." Yugito said. "While we were there, he told us about an organization that's hunting Jinchuriki: the Akatsuki."

That name sounded familiar, for some reason, but E couldn't figure out why. On the other hand, Kirabi and Yugito's presence after the war ended had allowed for Kumo to attain a new alliance together with Kiri; the new Mizukage had been gracious, despite the fact that his soldiers had fought for the opposing side.

E appreciated that.

* * *

"How long will it take to get to get to Kumo?"

"Two days...less than one, if we really push ourselves. Are you all ready?" Jiraiya asked.

"Yeah. Let's go!"

The sun hadn't risen yet, though the darkness had begun to wane into dawn.

"Alright then. Top speed!"

The mad dash out of Uzushio began, though no lightning struck near the sextet as they left. They reached the beaches of Hi no Kuni, and continued moving north by way of the trees. The coast was beautiful, stretching as far as any of them could see, with not another soul left in the world to walk along it.

It would be the perfect place to go if you wanted to be alone with your thoughts.

Around midday, they passed into Yu no Kuni, home of the disbanded Yugakure no Sato after its ninja reached the consensus that they would rather enjoy lives of peace than always continue preparing for greater wars to come.

From there, Jiraiya commandeered a small sloop, placing a homing seal on the dock's underside and explaining to the merchant what would happen. Then, as the five Suiton users of their group shaped the water around them, they took off at speeds that made Zabuza's boat feel like a snail.

In the late afternoon, they reached the beaches of Kaminari no Kuni, and had bypassed Shimo no Kuni entirely. From there, it was a three-hour run to the gates of Kumogakure no Sato, and they were greeted by none other than Yugito and Kirabi themselves.

"Nice of you to show up." Yugito said.

"My bro will want to speak to ya, swear to god he's like our mother. Time to get a move on though...nine and three, come watch the show!"

"He means he wants to take you around the village...but that will have to wait until we actually talk with E-sama."

* * *

"There's more of you than I had been told." E looked to Kirabi for an explanation.

"There were only three of 'em in Kiri, my eyes didn't deceive me!"

"Does...does he always do that?"

"Yes." Five voices spoke in unison, answering Oboro's question.

"Regardless, I was told several months ago that we should expect you to arrive. Congratulations for your work in Kiri, by the way...Yugito and my brother may have been on the side opposing you, but I can appreciate talent where it's present, even in those who aren't strictly my allies."

Kumo and Konoha had always been uneasy with one another, a fact that E had been trying to change for some time now. Since the Sandaime Raikage's death, he'd worked to bring better, less aggressive relations with all the other nations. He hadn't always succeeded, but he blamed that on the Yondaime Kazekage's unwillingness to trust anyone not born in Suna...and, apparently, the Yondaime Mizukage's mind being controlled.

He would always be alert, because they were living in dangerous times, but it was foolish not to make alliances; this was a chance to create a stronger bond with Konoha. While he didn't enjoy the safety risks associated with playing host to a pair of Jinchuriki, it would reflect badly on them to refuse such a prominent Konoha ninja as Jiraiya. Moreover, this was a chance to show the Konoha-nin that he did things differently than his predecessors. He was passionate, even bull-headed at times, but he would never stoop to the lows that they had.

"Uh...thanks?"

"No, I mean it. I respect anyone willing to push their limits for the cause they believe in, whether or not they find victory. True strength comes from passion, and the will to follow through!"

"Be that as it may, E-sama...they'll need a room. Multiple rooms. Two, three?"

"Three." Jiraiya, Naruto, Tayuya and Oboro all said at once.

"Did you have a particular place in mind?" E asked. "You've been here several times, Jiraiya-dono. I'm sure you have an idea of which establishments you'd prefer."

Truth be told, Jiraiya would rather sleep on a rock. While the younger generations who'd come after him had their grudge against Iwa, and the Sannin would never claim that the animosity didn't have its place, he had seen Kumo shinobi commit horrendous atrocities in the name of war. He had fought them as they raided a farm village which was just trying to survive, he had watched them leave no survivors. While not the main perpetrator, they had sacked Uzushio.

The real difficulty Jiraiya had with them was one that he had carried for years, and he doubted that he'd ever be able to let it go: it was Kumo ninja who'd killed his parents.

Naruto had been partially correct, in his statement about how most people wouldn't care that he was the son of the Yondaime Hokage due to the fact that wartime events happened during their wars, and carrying them forward would be foolish...but Naruto also hadn't watched his loved ones die in droves on the battlefield, and known who was responsible, and been tied up by politics to never engage them unless another war broke out or their missions were conflicting.

War left scars that ran deeper than the body, and it left pain in the soul that nothing could ever get rid of. Jiraiya had tried.

"Hmm...I can't say that I do. It's been nearly five years, so my memory is a little rusty. Is there anywhere that any of you would recommend?"

"No, unfortunately...in much the same way that you would undoubtedly be unable to offer assistance with finding a place in Konoha, I can't say that we would be able to help you. However, if you find one, simply name it and we'll pay for your stay. Of course, depending on the length of your visit, you could instead choose to room in the Raikage Manor. It's far too large a house for just Kirabi and I."

"Well, I don't know how long we'll be here, but I don't doubt that it'll be for some time, so that's arguably the best option."

Just like that, it was decided.

* * *

"Hey, Mister Nine and Miss Three, say hello to Team Kirabi!" The burly Jinchuriki declared, having led Naruto, Tayuya, and the twins to Unraikyo Valley.

"A five-man squad?" Naruto questioned; two men and two women, with one of each being fair- and dark-skinned, stood beside their apparent teacher. "That's a little unusual. Won't sensors pick you up really easily, especially with you being a Jinchuriki?"

"We're all Chunin, but Samui-onee is a Jounin like Kirabi-sensei. Technically, we four just go on missions, but when the action looks like it might get a bit hot, Kirabi-sensei comes with us." The blond, pale-skinned Kumo-nin said, pointing to his sister.

That made a little more sense.

"Time for introductions, I guess?" Tayuya said.

"I'm Omoi, and this is my sister Karui. Samui is our squad leader when Kirabi-sensei isn't on missions with us, and her brother is Atsui." The dark-skinned man said.

"Alright, I guess. I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and these are my younger twin siblings, Rei and Kouga."

Referring to them as anything else would cause too many problems to arise, and the pair already referred to him as their older brother, so it was really a non-issue.

"Kitamon no Tayuya. I'm this piss-for-brains' girlfriend."

"Oh, because of his hair?" Karui asked.

"Naruto, I don't know if I've ever said anything bad about Kumo before, but I take back whatever it might have been. Can we move here?"

Karui and Atsui laughed.

"Anyway...you're all Kirabi's students?"

"Yes, though some of us are more studious than others. Particularly about the quieter, calmer, more controlled elements of the shinobi lifestyle." Omoi shot a glance in his sister's direction.

"Omoi, I swear to god, I'm gonna beat you to a pulp if you say another word."

The dark-skinned ninja looked entirely unmotivated by the threats Karui made. That was probably something he'd learned from Kirabi, given the relationship between the Raikage and his brother.

"Hey, I just had a thought! Bonds grow stronger after ninja have fought. Why not break away and spar through the heat today?" Kirabi said.

"That doesn't sound like a fantastic idea, these three all specialize in high-destruction Ninjutsu. As in, I saw Naruto create a mountain in Mizu no Kuni, and the twins can cut through lightning with Suiton techniques." Tayuya said.

"I'm more than willing to go into a Kenjutsu match, though. The twins could probably use some practice, too...it gets old, fighting the same person every day. Oboro obaa-chan is good, but she's not a master. Hell, I could probably stand to learn how to use a regular katana or tanto along with my falx."

"No, that'd probably be a disaster. Study one sword art and become a master. Otherwise your muscles' memories will tussle and freeze."

Strangely enough, Naruto found that he was starting to get used to the older Jinchuriki's spoken couplets. He would never take after the quirk, but it was an acquired trait that Kirabi seemed to want to practice at any given time...possibly a quirk he'd developed to deal with his own mental traumas? It was a known, high-potential side effect of working in their trade.

Jiraiya wrote smut, and the Sandaime had smoked nearly a pouch of tobacco a day. Tsunade gambled, Kakashi spoke to his dead teammates. The constant training and mission intake, as well as the risks that came with those missions, drove some ninja to insanity or criminality. If Jiraiya was to be believed, Orochimaru's experiments had started because he wanted to keep people from dying. Hatake Sakumo had committed seppuku after being ridiculed and vilified for saving his comrades instead of completing his mission.

Next to that list of choices, Kirabi's so-called rapping was fairly light in comparison.

"Alright then. Tayuya, though...you'll want to pick something up, maybe? Your choice, but I mean...it can't hurt, can it? It'll be easier to learn now than when we're Ero-sennin's age, the jackass. Fifty-one years old, he's a goddamn billionaire, and he still makes me pay for shit?"

"You're right." The redhead agreed with him. "Even though Genjutsu is my strong point, it'd be pretty fuckin' bad of me to avoid improving other areas...particularly on such a long goddamn break from missions. You still have that old sword your jiji used?"

Oboro had given him the katana her husband had used, but Naruto had his falx; the only reason he'd suggested attempting to learn how to wield it was due to his attachment to her, and the fact that it was one of the only ties to the Uzumaki clan that he had.

"Yeah." He unsealed it from a scroll, passing the sheathed blade to her. _Yama no O-Kyuuden,_ Oboro had called it. The Hall of the Mountain King...a gift given to the Shodaime Uzukage by his Iwa counterpart, the Shodaime Tsuchikage, in honor of their alliance at the end of the Warring Clans period. Just over forty years later, Iwa had sacked Uzushio in a joint attack with Kumo and Kiri, as well as Danzo's surprise attack on them.

Naruto fully intended to see that man dead by his own hand.

"Okay, Miss Three, you're comin' with me! The rest of you spar, but not too hard!" Tayuya left to follow Kirabi, ready to learn.

"You hear that, you two?" Naruto questioned Rei and Kouga. "Don't go easy, but you're not allowed to try to kill."

"You mean...two of us are gonna be fighting kids?" Omoi asked, clearly having reservations about that.

"Don't worry about them." Naruto grinned. "Don't you know the first rule of shinobi conduct? Never, ever, underestimate your enemy. Especially not those kids. They're a little too smart and strong for their own good...that's why they're here with us, not back in the academy. Still...everybody, coat your blades with chakra so that you can't cut. Rei, Kouga, that goes for you too." The twins pouted slightly.

"Out of curiosity, Naruto-san," Samui began, "how do you know Kirabi-sensei?"

"How do I what? Oh, during Kiri's rebellion, I fought him and Mizukage at the same time, mostly in Kenjutsu. I thought we were a pretty even match, even though it only looked like he wasn't even using half of his swords. I got him up to three, though. Probably would've gotten him farther if the Sanbi hadn't decided to unleash itself and fuck up the battle. I beat it back into submission, but Kirabi got blown away by one of my attacks, and he didn't show himself again until after Yagura was dead."

"You were on par with Kirabi-sensei using the Santoryu style, and a Kage, simultaneously? You took down a Biju?"

"Well, I mean, it seems a lot more impressive when you put it like that. I just treated it like any other battle, nothing was special about it from anything else during the war."

"No, Naruto-san, that's very cool. It takes most Kenjutsu practitioners several years to make Kirabi-sensei fight them using three or more swords, though only a concerted team effort would be enough to make him use all eight...of course, at that point, he'd just release the Hachibi and be done with it, but...those other accomplishments are monstrous feats. Whole armies could be slaughtered by a Biju, even a low-tail one like the Sanbi if it's in its element, which Mizu no Kuni certainly is.

"On top of that, you killed the Mizukage. You, someone ranked as a Chunin, killed the Mizukage. The strongest ninja in Kirigakure. Do you see where I'm going with this, Naruto-san, or do I need to continue?"

"No, I get your point." Naruto said. "I'm the same way as Kirabi, though. My falx has two sizes, depending on whether or not it has chakra in it. This is the regular size."

Naruto held out the sword for them to see. Channeling the Kyuubi's chakra into it, the blade grew large enough to the point where it seemed to necessitate double-handed wielding. All the same, Naruto held it in just his right hand.

"This is its unsealed size, which is better for range and power purposes. Thanks to the fact that it's attuned to my chakra, it's also light and maneuverable. So...of the four of you, who wants to take on the twins, and who wants to take a shot at me?"

He re-sealed his falx.

"Omoi, Karui, you two will have a match against the children. Atsui, sit back and cool off, I'll go a few rounds against Naruto-san."

"Oh, this is gonna be hot."

The dark-skinned twins drew their weapons, and the Uzumaki twins called theirs forth. Both parties made a show of displaying the chakra-coating over the edges of their weapons.

Samui drew her tanto, then she and Naruto repeated the actions of the other four.


	18. One Who is Raised by the Sword

**One chapter, as promised! Now, you'll get to see Rei and Kouga's Kenjutsu skills...and from there, who knows?**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. draven32: Kenjutsu would be a nice way to increase Tayuya's skill set; on the other hand, it was while Naruto stayed in Kumogakure that he learned how to control the Kyuubi's chakra. Who says Tayuya can't become stronger by doing that?**

 **2\. OneLunchMan: Pacing is something I have trouble with, as I go through times of heavy writing and times of very little writing, depending on...anything, really. Once I graduated and got a job, I didn't have much time to do anything, and even though that's still going on now (moreso than it ever has) I decided that I wanted to do something besides sit on my ass and play video games. So now, I sit on my ass and write...and play video games. Oops.**

 **3\. Guest: As a matter of fact, you _did_ miss something. Check chapter 5, and then chapter 14. I'm glad I was subtle enough to trip up at least one person!**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

The twins were proving a frighteningly even match for their Kumo-nin opponents; while it was clear that Omoi and Karui had worked together, training to fight in sync, Rei and Kouga's teamwork was at a higher level altogether. Rei's katar, and Kouga's gauntlets, didn't put them at a disadvantage with their taller, longer-armed and longer-weapon-wielding opponents.

Kouga batted Karui's katana away, sliding to the side as it came back down, and the guard of Rei's katar caught the blade. Omoi came from behind her, intending to get an effective, "killing," blow on the young girl, but her brother swung in and punched Omoi's blade hard enough to make the flesh of his arm shake.

"Ah!" The dark-skinned shinobi cried out, wincing as his arm returned to normal.

"Omoi, are you okay?" His sister asked, the fight momentarily pausing as all eyes turned to Omoi.

"Yeah, but if we weren't fighting with dead weapons then my arm would be shattered. Time to practice with my bad hand, I guess..."

He moved his blade to his left hand, tucking the right behind his back, and soon enough he was having to exert himself much more than he'd been before in order to keep up with his younger opponents. The shift was certainly in Rei and Kouga's favor, the pair switching targets once again as Kouga fought Karui and Rei went back to targeting Omoi.

Omoi was clearly uncomfortable using his off hand to fight, apparently not having trained with it much. He was put on the defensive, barely managing to keep evading Rei's continued offense in close quarters. Karui was faring better, though Kouga's hands were far faster than any nine-year-old's should have been as he managed to deflect every blow off the back of his gauntlets. It was irritating her, causing her strikes to become more aggressive. Still, his speed matched her own.

There was something to be said about training with a woman whose chakra weapons were a pair of whips enhanced with Futon chakra. You learned to be fast unless you wanted to be in pain, and they'd trained his reflexes until he was able to catch eight whip-heads from various heights and angles. Shadow clones weren't just good for training yourself, after all.

Compared to that, Karui's blows were practically half the speed he was used to.

The Kumo twins performed the same maneuver at once, a dramatic downward swing intended to take out the legs of their opponents, and the Uzumaki pair jumped as one being; when their opponents' swords rose up, they stuck to the blades with their chakra, and then moved in for their kills. Rei, with her katar crossed around Omoi's throat, was unquestioned. Kouga was in a similar position, his gauntlet-clad fists fractions of an inch away from making Karui's skull explode.

"We win." Kouga said, grinning. "That was fun!"

"See what I meant?" Naruto said.

"Yes...age has nothing to do with ability. Otherwise, it would be impossible for you to have matched Kirabi-sensei, and your siblings wouldn't have handed us that defeat." Omoi said, pensive.

"Ah, dammit! Samui, you better kick his ass!" Karui raged.

* * *

Far enough away that they couldn't hear the sparring, Tayuya and Kirabi sat across from one another in a shallow cave.

"The first rule of Kenjutsu is to understand your weapon, and the world around you, and your place in it." Kirabi said, and Tayuya could feel his eyes on her through his sunglasses.

"You're not going to rhyme?" She questioned.

"This is serious business. I do that to fuck with my brother, and anyone else who tries to tell me what I should or shouldn't do...and also because it's fun. It keeps my vocabulary as big as my muscles, and you never know when you might need to talk your way out of a tussle."

"You're ridiculous." Still, it was one more thing explained about the man's character.

"Like anyone else has room to talk. Get back to the lesson...what's that you have in your hand?" He gestured to the blade Tayuya held.

"A sword. A katana." The _Yama no O-Kyuden_ rested, sheathed, in her right hand.

"No. What you have in your hands is your _life._ When you learn Kenjutsu, you learn the way of the sword. You don't just use the katana, you _are_ the katana. If your blade breaks, you die."

That sounded a bit too samurai-inspired for a ninja to say. She still had Ninjutsu and Genjutsu to bolster her arsenal if things got to the point where a blade was hindering her in battle. Still...it seemed that as a teacher, Kirabi held the no-nonsense attitude that was expected of a Jounin-sensei.

"Right now, you're thinking about how you have other techniques besides swordsmanship. You can't do that."

"Why not? We're ninja, specialization means death."

The nearly smug look on Kirabi's face let her know that her own expressions had given her away.

"Because you've already moved on to plan B, or C, or even plan D. That means you think plan A can fail, which means that it may as well have failed already."

"Can't help it...you know my story. Orochimaru isn't one to go into a situation without contingency plans set in place, and that may be the one good thing I learned from him."

"Then I can't teach you Kenjutsu...rather, you won't be able to learn it."

"What? Why not?"

"Because you're not willing to commit fully to Kenjutsu training. There's a boy in Konoha, I heard about him after his first C-rank to Taki no Kuni...he's a ninja, and he has almost no chakra. He can't use Ninjutsu, or even Genjutsu. And do you know what he did? He said that a ninja didn't have to have chakra techniques, that he would be a Taijutsu specialist and he'd still manage to beat everybody. That boy is a goddamn inspiration, and it's thanks to him that I teach the way I do. I wouldn't ask you to never perform Ninjutsu or Genjutsu again, but if I were going to teach you Kenjutsu then you would need to make it your main focus, until drawing that blade from its sheath would be more natural to you than breathing or blinking."

Kirabi paused, and traced the path of the scar Naruto had given him months earlier.

"Things like this happen when you stop respecting the way of the sword, and those who practice it beside you. You start thinking about plan B, and then you make mistakes that force you to take it. Do you think it'd be possible for you to specialize like I have? All those kids, they learned from me before I started thinking like this...and they have hell to pay for it. I never force them to go farther, but I encourage the damn fools every time. Your boy, and those kids, could probably eat my students for breakfast. Just one look, and you know they're not like me."

"Like you?"

"Some ninja are made, but others are born. Nine, and those twins? The three of them were born killers. It's in their eyes. They will learn anything they can, as much as they can, until they've mastered it. That sword of his...it used to be popular before the samurai came in, with their Kenjutsu. It's not as effective against layered armor, despite what he might have told you. His can channel demonic chakra, which makes it stronger than a normal one. It's not a graceful weapon, like the katana in your hand. That one, it was made for a Kenjutsu master. Nine's sword, though...it's a reflection of his self. Brutal, inelegant, and designed to eviscerate rather than strike precisely."

She couldn't argue with that. She'd seen it in action when he trained, and during most of his fight in Kiri. It was relatively awkward to her, as its use defied the logic of how a regular sword would be put to work.

"Then tell me, which one am I?"

"Me and you...we were made. Something in you makes you hold back, something deep-seated, something from your past that you aren't certain you want to know. Nine is the opposite: on the outside, he keeps himself calm and passive, but once he gets himself into a fight..."

Kirabi had seen the look in Naruto's eyes as Tayuya fell into his arms in Kiri, and it had terrified him. In an instant, Naruto's facial expression had gone from acceptance to horror, through all the rage and hatred a human could feel, and settled on mania. The ear-splitting howl after Yagura's beheading hadn't been screaming in grief for Tayuya; it had been a victory cry that even the dead gods would have heard in their sleep.

He never wanted to see that again. Kirabi knew that he was larger and stronger, and that in practical experience he was far and above Naruto's caliber. He knew that he was better in Kenjutsu and Taijutsu, while they were evenly matched in Ninjutsu. Thanks to the scar on his cheek, given to him so quickly that he'd never even seen the boy move, he knew one more thing: he would never survive a direct confrontation with the Kyuubi Jinchuriki unless he performed a full possession with the Hachibi.

Every village had their legendary warriors or nukenin, whose names were stained like the bloody sky at sunset. Iwagakure's Kaete Jinza was a still-feared warrior, who'd been nicknamed _Chuufuku,_ "The Mountainside," for a Kekkei Genkai that allowed her to transmute her skin to stone. She'd died in the Second Great War, but she'd slain her killers as she'd laid dying. Sunagakure's Akasuna no Chiyo, founder of the puppetry arts and an accomplished apothecary, had nearly brought her nation to victory in all three wars due to her ability with poisons.

Kirigakure's Seven Swordsmen were all quasi-mythical in their powers, not the least of which was, "the Tailless Biju," Hoshigaki Kisame. The half-shark and his former countryman, Momochi Zabuza, were the only two of the group who still lived. Zabuza was feared as a master assassin, the size of his sword no object to stealth or killing ease. Kumogakure would have counted Kirabi and his brother among the ranks of such people, but the Sandaime Raikage had been a bloodthirsty killer more deserving of a spot on the list; even Namikaze Minato, a man who'd been named, "Shinigami," by many ninja in his life, had been unable to kill Nii Togari.

In Konoha, the name of Uchiha Itachi was synonymous with murder. The skill, planning, and willpower to carry out the genocide of an entire clan...and it had been his own family, to boot. Itachi was a genius, and that could only be meant in the horrific way all older ninja used that word.

It could very well be that Naruto was on his way to joining those men and women, and perhaps even surpassing them.

Kirabi didn't want to find out.

* * *

Naruto held the tip of his falx at Samui's throat, grinning like a devil as it dug into her soft flesh.

"I concede." She said, backing away as he lowered his blade.

Naruto had controlled the pace of the entire spar, despite the the surprise of her tanto's extendable blade, or even giving herself a second copy of it with . It was a nice trick, and entirely unexpected, but hardly something that had affected the course of their battle.

The look in his eyes had shaken her faith in her skills. She'd known she would lose; Naruto had forced Kirabi to use three blades when he was teamed with the Mizukage, another high-level Kenjutsu practitioner. She couldn't compete against that, in terms of pure sword-wielding ability. Still, it was sobering to have lived the difference in their skill levels.

"You're good." Naruto praised her. "Though, looking at the three of you...isn't your sensei supposed to be, like, _the_ Kenjutsu master? I wouldn't think you'd be on his level, but still, shouldn't you be more proficient?"

"Kirabi wanted to give them a well-rounded education." A voice came from a few feet behind Naruto, enough to make him comfortable if he needed to defend himself. "Which was a mistake he wishes he could undo."

"Ah. Hello, Yugito." Naruto turned and backed up, keeping all the other ninja in his sight; it was an old reflex.

"That was mean, Naruto-kun. The twins were relatively even, but you...why would you do that to Samui-chan?"

"It's cool, Yugito-sama." The bustier blonde dismissed her senior Jounin's admonishment. "It was like a teaching moment. No matter how strong I might get, I don't doubt that Naruto-san will always be stronger."

"That may or may not be true, but feel free to use me as a measuring stick until we find out for sure." Naruto offered. "Yugito...let me guess: you feel left out, because I've fought just about everyone except you?"

"Aw, you _do_ care!" Yugito nearly squealed, making Naruto laugh. "So maybe you'll care enough to really fight against me."

"That's a dangerous request...are you sure?"

"What can I say, Naruto-kun? I'm a jealous woman. Everybody else has had a turn with you, and I want mine."

"Any rules?" He would let her set the course for her own destruction.

"No Biju, no weapons. Just Nin-Tai." She said. Ninjutsu and Taijutsu only...Naruto could make that work.

"Ready when you are...the rest of you, clear the hell out of here."

Six ninja scattered, leaving the two Jinchuriki at the bottom of the valley.

"Go." Yugito said, the declaration immediately met by the feeling of air around her stomach; her purple armor had somehow been removed, leaving only the black bodysuit on her torso. "Huh?"

 _Kage Bunshin_ really were invaluable, Naruto thought to himself.

"I figured it must be so humid in that armor, with how thick the air is in this valley...don't worry, I'm stripping too." He threw his jacket to the side, revealing his own black t-shirt that left most of his arms visible.

"Holy shit, does the Kyuubi not heal you?"

"Not completely. I think it likes to leave reminders that I should be faster next time...this isn't even the majority of them, or the worst. Hell, my elbow, I did to myself." He pointed out the off-colored ring of flesh on his left arm, where he'd severed it to strike Jiraiya. "A Pyrrhic victory is still a victory. Blood shed is blood earned. I will earn every victory, I will shed every last drop of blood in my body, if that's what it takes to become strong."

"You're a monster." There was no weight behind Yugito's words; they weren't meant to insult.

"Thank you."

"Promise not to hold anything against me?"

"Nope!"

Both Jinchuriki, with hair light sunlight and teeth that were closer to fangs, grinned. They weren't going to fight. It was time to _play._

Without warning, both of them acted. Two of Naruto's clones attacked, one sliding low and one jumping high, only for Yugito to flop into the air and lay horizontally between them before striking and dispelling them. Chakra extended from her fingers and toes, culminating in three-inch claws. Naruto bared his own hardened nails, strengthened by the power of the Kyuubi, and their watchers could barely pick out their individual blurs when both ninja began to move.

All three sets of siblings looked to their partner, and then back to the mock-battle before them. They'd never actually seen anyone move that quickly.

Yugito, however, was old enough to have fought in the Third Great War. She _had_ fought. Her uncle, the Sandaime Raikage, had insisted on training her to be a warrior practically from birth. While she had never come to reach the man's level, she felt the power of his compulsive words every day of her life.

"Naruto-kun, do you know why it's foolish to fight a cat?"

"Why?" He decided to humor her. "It'll hear me opening a can of tuna from miles away?"

"No...cats have nine lives. You only have one." Their swings and kicks continued to be blocked by the other, moving faster than anyone else could see clearly.

"And a little kitten is just one person." Naruto challenged. "I am legion."

An army of clones surrounded Yugito, and she lacked the ability to tell which one was the real deal. That would have been a difficult task regardless, but his ability to _kawarimi_ using his clones, while lacking any sign of displacement, was something to be fearful of.

While he'd diversified his arsenal of jutsu considerably over the last year, his manipulations of the _Taju Kage Bunshin_ were still his most-used techniques. Anything he wielded could be a clone, from the shuriken in his pouch to an insect on the blades of grass they were fighting on.

"Think you can keep going if I speed up a little more? I'd hate to see you burn out on me..." Yugito said, ready to go even faster regardless of whether or not Naruto would be able to keep up with her.

"Be my guest. I was feeling a little slow, too."

For the first time in a while, Naruto was genuinely having fun.


	19. The Fate of the Biju

**Late in the day, but hey, look at this: new chapter! Please enjoy. Side note: I seem to write much more easily when I listen to Tupac or Nas, or the really mellow Black Sabbath albums like _Master of Reality._ No idea why, though.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. animeficfan: Hmm...we'll see. Personally, I'm more of a grey!Naruto fan. Dark!Naruto generally just turns into an edgelord and a meme unless he's written very well, but goody-two-shoes Naruto who believes in everyone is similarly undesirable. Fine line to walk, you know?**

 **2\. Lord Bedhead: I couldn't help myself. This is a NaruTayu-only story, but like I said in the chapter 1 AN, NaruYugi is my Naruto OTP. Maybe my next story? Who knows...not me!**

 **3\. OneLunchMan: Happy birthday, dude! Glad to know I could deliver the present. Here, have a day-after gift on me too.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"I think I just heard one of them make a sonic boom." Samui said, trying to watch Naruto and Yugito. "Did anybody else hear that?"

"How are they even doing that safely? Geez, wouldn't their inner ears be obliterated?" Karui asked.

"They might be chakra-coated...or they might just leave it be, since their power as Jinchuriki will allow them to heal relatively quickly." Omoi said.

"They're not trying to be safe. See those track lines in the earth? That's from their misses, and they couldn't redirect themselves in time." Samui added.

"Wow...Naruto-onii is so cool!" Rei said.

Naruto had been training with the heavily-amplified Slog Seal for over a year; when he'd asked Jiraiya about its potency, it had been twenty times as strong as when first applied. It was a harsh method of training, as he needed to either release the seal constantly to adjust to his, "true," speed, or else risk being unable to control his own body when he moved. Yugito, lithe and graceful, was just naturally that fast...when she chose to be, of course.

Sometimes, Naruto felt like he was cheating his way to power, but he reconciled those thoughts to himself. Fuinjutsu was a genuine area of study, and Naruto just happened to be learning under the supervision of Konoha's foremost master of the art. And the _Kage Bunshin,_ well...when all you have is a hammer, you learn to swing it effectively. That principle rang true with Naruto and his signature technique, with all the ways he'd learned to utilize it.

They were too even a match, though Naruto was slightly stronger and Yugito was barely faster. She was also more capable of fighting multiple enemies simultaneously, the destruction of all the clones he'd summoned proof enough of her skill.

Without warning, however, his chakra chains grabbed ahold of her and kept her frozen, all her limbs splayed out in a pose that almost looked like the kanji for, "Fire."

"Hey, no fair! I was having fun, Naruto-kun!"

"So was I. Still, I think you proved your point."

The wild look in his eyes vanished, and took with it her drive to compete against him. The chains vanished as suddenly as they'd appeared, dropping Yugito to the ground, where she sprung back up off of a handstand to land on her feet.

"Mm...maybe. Don't think I'll let you leave without a _real_ fight, though."

There it was again, that shine of not-quite madness in his eyes that screamed for conquest. Yugito wasn't quite sure what it was that she felt when she saw it, but she knew that it drove her to fight as hard as she could. It was a shame he was an item together with that redhead from Oto, she mused. Otherwise, she would be more than willing to make him her own.

The decade between them was of relatively minor importance, all things considered. In the shinobi world, it was rank and power that mattered. If they were civilians, it would be an obvious taboo, but Naruto had defeated the current Kazekage in battle before, and had killed Yagura He'd also managed to defeat both of their Biju, practically single-handedly. That wasn't something most ninja could do. There was a saying, "the older a ninja gets, the deadlier they are," and Naruto had defeated both of them prior to his sixteenth birthday, inside of a year between both events.

She wanted to see just how deadly Naruto could become.

"Yo, are you two messin' up my valley? Quit it before I give ya heads a drum rally! Fools!"

Kirabi and Tayuya had returned, quickly followed by the three pairs of siblings.

"I'm not apologizing." Yugito said. "Besides, I just wanted to give him a... _friendly greeting._ Get a taste of him, since I was denied in Kiri."

Her word choice bothered Tayuya, which was something of a first. While nothing Yugito said could be interpreted as outright lewd, her words could still be taken suggestively, and Tayuya was a very jealous woman when it came to what she considered her territory; Naruto definitely fell under that category. She contained herself, since it would reflect very poorly on her to get in a fight over something so petty, but still...she'd be lying if she said she was fine with just letting it slide.

* * *

"He said he wouldn't teach me." Tayuya said, curled up to Naruto on the bed they would share during their stay in Kumo. "And the way he talked...it bothered me."

"What did he say?" The blond's hand was around Tayuya's upper back, with her head resting on his shoulder.

"One thing in particular. He said some shinobi are born killers, and some are made. He said that he and I were made into the way we are, but you were born to kill."

The words gave Naruto pause for a moment, though his response wasn't long in coming.

"Is he wrong?"

"Not about me. It just bothered me that he'd say that about you."

"Well, he was telling the truth. You and I both know who my parents were. With that kind of pedigree, it's easy to think that my destiny was always to be a ninja. There's something else though...Kirabi couldn't possibly know, but he was right when he told you that. Do you remember me telling you about how I got most of my scars, when I was attacked?"

Tayuya nodded, idly tracing one of the longer lines in his chest.

"The attacks didn't start until I had killed thirty civilians."

The words were dropped so easily, so matter-of-fact, that they were even more shocking. Tayuya raised her head, looking her boyfriend in the eye, and it took all of her energy not to scream at him.

"You did _what?_ "

"I killed thirty civilians. They had refused to give food to me or Tenten, or clothes. Twenty-nine store owners, and an innocent who saw me kill the last one. Too many people saw that boy die, though...after that, they could pin everything on me. There was no trial or psychological evaluation, thanks to the Sandaime's interference, but civilians don't always like to play by the rules of their ninja superiors. One night, a few of them decided to take matters into their own hands and get revenge. Tenten was gone by that point."

He still remembered that night. His back, burned by acid, had felt like flames were eating it. From the front, they had carved into him. Wrapping his legs in the length of a hand-saw, they'd pulled. That had been when he'd chosen to fight back, and his death toll had risen to thirty-five. There was a certain magic to killing, for Naruto. Ever since then, he had lived for the rush of battle. Restraining himself was sometimes necessary, but it was a chore all the same; he had two pits in his chest to show him what happened when he pulled his punches.

Tayuya's temporary death had shown him what happened if he wasn't strong enough. He couldn't afford to be merciful, and if he eased his training then he risked the deaths of all the people he cared about. That was all the reason he needed to continue down the road he walked.

"Are you angry with me?" He asked.

"No, not...not angry. Shocked, maybe. Impressed, and depressed. It doesn't change how I feel about you, though." She twisted her head up, kissing him.

"I'm glad." He smiled. "Now, it's your turn. How were you, 'made,' a kunoichi?"

"I don't know, it's difficult to remember. I don't really know much about my life from before Orochimaru took me...but I know I was taken. And I know that I was a guinea pig for his more recent experiments at the time."

"Like what? You've never said anything about them."

"There's a reason for that, piss-for-brains. Remembering that shit is fuckin' _painful._ Orochimaru was kinder when I was on the table, compared to when Kabuto was the one cutting me open..."

Naruto made a mental note to himself, to make the bespectacled medic's death excruciatingly painful, if he got the chance.

"Please? You'll never start to get better if all you do is internalize it. The more you talk about it, hopefully, the better you'll feel about it. Maybe, one day, you'll be able to move on instead of just continuing to run away from it."

The logic was flawed, and very clearly so, but Tayuya didn't seem to think about that.

"I...as far as I know, I've been in Oto for at least ten years. He would have taken me while I was six, maybe a little younger. He had a group of other prisoners, most of them were a lot older than me. The last one standing would get a reward. I wasn't old enough to fight seriously, but I was old enough to know what death meant, and old enough to hide. I killed the ones who fought to the finish, with a kunai he'd given me. He asked me what I wanted as a reward...and I told him I wanted to be stronger. I wanted to be strong enough to go back to my family."

She couldn't have known any better.

"He gave me my seal, the _Oto no Infuin,_ though it wasn't the first one he'd done. There were four others, and we became the Sound Five. We went on several missions together, and gained a reputation with him for our ability to complete them regardless of difficulty. Eventually, he made us his elite guard, and Kimimaro had been selected as his next host body."

The last Kaguya had been elated beyond words for the supposed honor, which anyone else would have considered a death sentence. It had baffled Tayuya, and still did. That kind of blind devotion wasn't something to give to anyone, regardless of whether or not they were a leader or a friend. The only way to stay alive in their world was to maintain a healthy level of distrust for everyone.

The seal on her stomach reminded her that she'd already broken that rule, as did the soft growl that emanated from inside of it.

The more she talked, the more she realized that Zabuza had been right; in sharing her burden with Naruto, it weighed a little less heavily on her. She doubted it would ever go away, as the scars it had left in her mind were paramount to her present sense of self, but those scars could fade in time.

Being in love was a fucking mess.

"Maybe it's okay not to have Kenjutsu training." Naruto said, a while after they'd stopped talking about their pasts. "Hell, you can't even really call what I do 'Kenjutsu.' He probably said as much, too, didn't he? Besides...we're here in the village with two Jinchuriki who are pretty capable with using their Biju. We can _both_ learn something from them about that. Pick up some new Raiton techniques, too, maybe? Who knows?"

"That sounds like a good idea." Tayuya agreed.

"Also, I saw the way you looked when Yugito was talking. Don't worry, you're the only one for me."

The words brought no small amount of comfort to the redhead's heart.

"Thank you. I'll try not to."

Really, that was all he could ask.

* * *

"How's the training progressing?" Jiraiya asked. He sat across from Naruto, at the table in the room Tayuya shared with the blond.

Despite his reservations, and previous objection about leaving Naruto and Tayuya without his presence, he'd vanished for two months gathering intel from his agents across the nations...though strictly outside of Konoha territory, as he didn't want to explain to Tsunade or the Anbu that he'd left his students in technically hostile territory.

Kumo's aggressions wouldn't be forgotten until a greater threat loomed over the Konoha populace's heads. Some people would never forget.

"It's going well." Naruto said. "But I'm stuck in a rut, and I think it's because of what happened with my seal."

"Oh?" The white-haired Sannin focused on Naruto, and whatever it was that he might say next.

"Is it true that only half of it is sealed inside of me?"

That question sent Jiraiya's mind reeling, but he owed the blond an answer.

"Yes, it's true. The Kyuubi's chakra was split into Yin and Yang halves, and Minato sealed the Yang half into you. A baby, even one whose parent was also a Jinchuriki, shouldn't have the strength in their chakra coils to hold a Biju as strong as the Kyuubi is. I have the seal that can place the Yin half into you, now that you're old enough to have fully-formed chakra coils and you've lived your entire life with the Yang half inside of you."

He'd gotten straight to the point, something that Naruto had always liked about Jiraiya. There was no drawling, no beating around a metaphorical bush. At least, not when things were serious.

"I want you to do that."

"Are you sure? It may strain the seal very badly, and that's saying nothing about the fact that the Kyuubi's power will increase dramatically. It will double, at least."

While he paused to process that fact, Naruto's face didn't betray any outward emotion. That meant the meteor, and the creation of a mountain, had been considered small-scale techniques with _half_ of the Kyuubi's chakra. That, Naruto thought, was beyond ridiculous. There should be a limit on just how powerful someone could get, demon or not.

That wasn't how the world worked, unfortunately. The Kyuubi held power, and the ability to attain more, so it would; that was the nature of demons, and of life itself. The strong would find ways to prosper, and the helpless would be crushed underfoot. It wasn't a system that Naruto particularly venerated, as it had left him living on the streets for fifteen years. Known as, "Brother Naruto," to the young street rats of Konoha's slums, he'd become something of a priest, if not a borderline messianic figure, to the children who'd lost all hope in themselves and their futures.

The power of the strong should be used to guide the weak toward strength of their own, not to force them into a life they didn't choose.

That was Naruto's belief.

"I...yeah. Yeah, I'm sure. Worst-case scenario, I won't be able to fully control it for a while. Otherwise, I'll have a lot more strength to draw from. Any tool is better than none at all, right?"

"When you put it like that, it's hard to refuse." Jiraiya said. "Alright. I'll do it right now."

Weaving through a few short hand seals, Jiraiya summoned a toad Naruto had never met.

"Gerotora, this is about the second seal. Not the first one."

"The energy transfer?" Gerotora asked, looking between Jiraiya and Naruto. "Are you sure?"

"No, but he is." Jiraiya forked his thumb over to point at Naruto. "So I'm gonna trust his judgement."

"This isn't something that can be undone." The toad said. "Once I complete the transfer, the seal will disappear and its effects will be permanent."

Gerotora turned to look at Naruto.

"Are you absolutely certain?"

Cold steel was in Naruto's gaze.

"Yes."

"Then...I will begin."

The series of hand seals was too fast for either human to see, and Naruto could feel the _Shiki Fuin_ burning on his skin. His breathing became heavy as he bent over, chakra leaking out of his body like a sieve in an attempt to burn off energy.

"Are you okay?" Jiraiya asked.

"I'm fine. Keep going."

The next wave sent so much pain through Naruto that he dropped to the floor, with blood beginning to leak through his shirt from his scars. Naruto's eyes were wide, and Jiraiya saw the blood vessels pop to stain his corneas red. His fingers twitched, flexing muscles that rippled beneath his skin. Violent, corrosive energy enveloped his body and ate at him. In that moment, Jiraiya looked away.

In that moment, it was done.

"Holy..." Naruto said, his body healing beneath his clothes, his eyes healing over almost instantly. He mentally commanded the healing to avoid most of his scars, as they had been part of him for too many years to feel comfortable without, but the pits in his chest from Sasuke's _Chidori_ were gone in seconds. "...I've never felt this good in my _life._ We should have done this a year ago, I'd have fucking _obliterated_ Yagura! Oh my fuckin' god!"

"So it worked?"

"If it didn't, then I don't wanna know what success would mean. Geez, I could..." Naruto trailed off. What _could_ he do?

It was time to find out, he told himself.

* * *

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Naruto stood in the sewer of his mindscape, where it bridged with the _Shiki Fuin_ that sealed away the Kyuubi. Before him, however, was something that didn't make any sense at all: while the Kyuubi was still in its cage, the sealing tag was in place on its padlock, despite Naruto distinctly remembering that he'd ripped it off.

On top of that, there was a second Kyuubi outside of the cage, though its murky brown fur contrasted with the vibrant orange of the fox he'd become used to seeing in his irregular visits to the seal. At his appearance, both halves of the same demon turned to look at him with savagery in their eyes.

 **"Naruto."** The brown fox spoke. **"It's been a long time. Sixteen years, eh?"**

 **"Maybe for you, Yin. I've been stuck inside this ningen for that long, and let me tell you, it's not that great."**

 **"That's because you're trapped, Yang. You're terrible at getting what you want, you're just too aggressive and overt. Also, your chakra is much more brutal than mine."**

"Wait...why are there two of you? Why not just fuse into one Kyuubi?"

 **"We can't. Thanks to that seal being in place, my Yin chakra is free to run through your body and remain at your command, to strengthen your body as well as your chakra coils. In layman's terms, you'll effectively have a chakra cloak at all times."**

"That's another problem. I tore the seal off...why is it back?"

 **"Thank the Uchiha."** Yang Kyuubi said, plain rage in its voice. **"Whatever it was that he gave you, it was able to replace the lock on my cage."**

All Naruto gathered from that information was that Uchiha Itachi, the Kinslayer, Madara Reborn, had saved his life and his sanity. He wasn't sure how to feel about that, considering the man's personal history as well as his status; Itachi was the Akatsuki member tasked with capturing Naruto, though according to Jiraiya it was impossible for them to attempt to unseal the Kyuubi until they'd sealed the other eight Biju away.

He understood that much, and then realized something else: according to the Yin Kyuubi, he had full reign over half of the Biju's total power.

While he'd thought about how it was unfair that the Yang Kyuubi was so powerful, he took the sentiment back. After all, it wasn't unfair if it was in Naruto's favor.

Fanged teeth grinning, Naruto receded back to the world outside of the _Shiki Fuin._

He needed to train.


	20. Realm of God

**A little late on my time, but thanks to FFN's servers this will technically be posted in the 24 hour limit I guess? Don't be too surprised if it takes two days to get the next chapter out, though.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. OneLunchMan: More Kurama is always good. Well, not really, Kurama's alignment throughout most of canon is decidedly on the evil side of the chart, but...you know what I mean. Also, congrats on being review #100!**

 **2\. SingleSoul: Eh, I understand that. There's definitely a few well-accomplished authors whose styles I just haven't been able to get behind, no matter how compelling I find the subject matter. Thanks for sticking it out in spite of that!**

 **3\. draven32: Given that Naruto's been stated to be training using excessive _Kage Bunshin_ abuse, as well as his achievements during the Kiri rebellion, I'd place him at Jounin rank. He's been gone from Konoha for a little over a year, now.**

 **4\. Aaeru: Even though I covered most of my response via PM, there's one other thing I wanted to address publicly so that other people can see/understand it and I only need to say it once:**

 **While Naruto received the second portion of the Kyuubi's chakra, and now possesses both the Yin and Yang halves, his power didn't actually increase very much. All it really did was bring his healing ability to the level of other Jinchuriki, and give him an even _bigger_ chakra supply to work with. These are both incredibly useful things, with the latter exemplified by the one Uzumaki Kinjutsu we've seen him use so far, but...as far as genuine power-ups go, this was more like a passive buff than an active increase in strength.**

 **EDIT: apparently I've been misspelling the _Goukakyu_ as _Goukyaku_ for a while now. Fixed in this chapter. Thanks to Aaeru for pointing it out.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

One day, Kirabi finally broached the topic he'd been waiting to ask about for several days.

"How would you feel if you two got full control over your Biju?"

"I think that'd be pretty nice." Naruto responded.

"Fuck, why wouldn't I want to?" Tayuya questioned in response. "Isn't that the whole point of being a Jinchuriki, to master the demon inside of you?"

"You don't master." Kirabi said. "You partner. Sometimes you can impress your Biju through the words you say and actions you do. Sometimes, though, you'll have to fight, because to Biju, the rule is, 'might makes right."

"Okay, but you saw the Kyuubi use me to _crash a meteor_ and _create a mountain._ How in the Shodaime's name am I supposed to fight that?"

"Easy." Tayuya said derisively. "Don't get hit."

"Okay, first of all..." Naruto trailed off, the room's door opening as Yugito walked in.

"I got clearance from E." Yugito said. "We're all set to go to Turtle Island."

"Turtle Island?" Tayuya asked.

"It's the place where Kumo's Jinchuriki train to control their Biju. It was a bit of a hard sell, considering that you two aren't Kumo shinobi, but...I have my ways." Her grin inspired no confidence in anyone. "The only question is what we'll do with your siblings and your grandmother."

"They can come with us. The twins are strong in their own right, I promise. Together, they could make any one of us start worrying about making a mistake."

"And alone?"

"Alone...they're at Chunin level, at least. Maybe a weak Jounin, considering they know chakra shape manipulation."

"What about your grandmother?"

"She was the wife of the Uzukage." Naruto said. "She has the power to live up to that reputation...don't doubt my family. Uzushio is gone, but the Uzumaki are strong."

"Whatever you say, Naruto-kun. We'll be leaving in two days."

An explosion outside drew their attention, and stopped that train of thought.

"Oh, fuck...come on!"

Kirabi barreled through the window, not even bothering to open it.

"Men and their windows..." Yugito groaned before following after. "...Mabui-chan is going to throw a fit."

There was going to be a problem.

* * *

The combination of Itachi's _Goukakyu_ and Kakuzu's _Atsugai_ had its intended effect, an exploding firestorm that shook the earth around them and would draw the attention of the village's shinobi.

It left a bitter taste in the Uchiha's mouth, though Hidan and Kisame were always ready and willing to kill. Kakuzu only cared if he could get a significant sum for the corpse.

"You're absolutely sure, Itachi?"

"Sasori's information is never wrong." Itachi confirmed. "Four of the Biju are here."

"We can't start the sealing process for almost two more years, and two of the hosts here will need to be sealed last. It doesn't make much sense to me." Kisame said. "But orders are orders, I guess...hey, Hidan, who do you think can kill more people? Me or you?"

"I'm gonna kill 'em all! Fuckin' heathens!" The shirtless, silver-haired man laughed, drawing his scythe.

"If you say so..." The Samehada shed its ribbons, the semi-sentient sword hungering for blood and chakra. "...but don't be mad when I outscore you."

The pair sprung into battle, their weapons put to immediate use as more ninja arrived on-scene to assess the situation.

That was the scene the Jinchuriki quartet found themselves in when they arrived: four S-ranked nukenin, with three of them engaging in battle. The fourth stood back, head slightly bowed, and no one dared go near him.

No one except Naruto, that is.

The blond flew through the air, engaging in a brief Taijutsu scuffle that left him standing just feet away from his best friend's most hated enemy.

"It's good to see you, Naruto."

"I can't say the same of you."

Brazenly and without fear, as though he'd forgotten everything he'd learned about the Sharingan, Naruto looked directly into Itachi's eyes. Immediately, without mercy, he was trapped in the _Tsukuyomi._

* * *

The world was black, with white lines outlining physical features.

"This is my world, the Tsukuyomi illusion given to me by my Mangekyou Sharingan." Itachi declared. "It's not breakable. Time is infinite in this realm, and an instant will have passed when we return to the real world."

Naruto snarled, but was unable to do anything.

"You can't attack me, Naruto. Here, I am god."

"Then let me get back to the real world so I can kick your divine ass!"

"I can't do that." Itachi said. "Once again, I'm here to talk. While it's true that our leader ordered us to strike, since four Jinchuriki are present...once again, I am here to prove that I mean you no ill will."

"Spare me that shit. You're the one assigned to capture me, so they can unseal the Kyuubi and kill me, and you're talking peace?"

"I mean it." The Uchiha said. "You and I are more similar than you want to admit."

"No!" Naruto denied it, struggling to defy the pacifism Itachi was able to force through his Genjutsu.

"When we return to the world beyond this illusion, you and I will continue our fight, but I cast a Genjutsu on my allies so that they will retreat on my signal without question. I may not even need to use it, but it's a security measure."

"Why?" Naruto asked. "Why go to this extent?"

"Because you've begun to come around to my way of thinking. The idea that one person can be more important than the village that holds your loyalty."

"No I'm not! I haven't! Konoha means everything to me!"

"Would you kill Jiraiya if the Hokage ordered you to?"

"I...what? She would never-"

"Would you kill Tayuya, if the Hokage ordered you to?" Itachi didn't give him a chance to refute the first question.

"I...no. I wouldn't. I couldn't."

"Would you kill the twins, if Kakashi asked? Would you become a Kinslayer on the orders of your superiors, just as I did?"

"On orders?" Naruto ignored the first question.

"It's a secret that only three people know. Danzo ordered me to kill my clan, he'd even falsified documentation from the Sandaime that said my mission was sanctioned. The Uchiha were about to revolt and cause a massive battle that might have killed most of Konoha, my clan included. My mission was to kill them all before that could happen."

Danzo.

Naruto knew that name.

"I agreed, on the condition that my brother would be spared. To me, Sasuke is more important than the village. I would choose to die, rather than kill him."

"You did a great job then, because all he wants to do is kill you."

"A problem I couldn't prevent from happening. He always lived in my shadow, but that was only because of our parents' favoritism toward me. I know I'm responsible for what happened, but it doesn't change the fact that all I wanted was for Sasuke to be happy."

Something clicked in Naruto's brain.

"Danzo helped exterminate the Uzumaki during the Second Great War." He said. "He was also apparently in league with Orochimaru before, and after, his defection."

"Then he has two clans to answer for." Itachi said.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I have no reason to lie. Because I want my brother to be happy. Because I want the sickness in Konoha's roots to be expunged, without needing to destroy the tree itself."

That was something Naruto understood. Itachi, it seemed, was still loyal to his home...only from the shadows, as open allegiance was an out-of-the-question idea. While it might have saved hundreds or thousands of lives, Itachi had effectively carpet-bombed Konoha.

"Wait...you said three people knew, before you told me. You're the first, Danzo is the second. Who else?"

"Kakashi."

Did the Jounin just magnetize himself for trouble, to attract all the things that happened to him? This was ridiculous. Naruto's parents, the deaths of his teammates, and the secret of the Uchiha Massacre? What was next, did Kakashi know the _Rasengan_ too?

"Also," Itachi continued, "I see you used some of the power I gave you."

"Not intentionally." Naruto countered. "I tore the seal off in order to kill the Mizukage."

Well, that would explain it, Itachi thought.

"It's time to return to the real world. Don't let anything I said in this illusion affect how you act."

Naruto nodded, and the _Tsukuyomi_ faded back into reality.

* * *

Naruto groaned, the pain from Itachi's illusion catching up to him.

"Son of a bitch." He muttered. "Katon: Shi-Yajirushi no Jutsu!" Four arrows flew from Naruto's hands. One went after each Akatsuki member, though Hidan was the only one to be hit.

"Yow!" the Yugakure nukenin yelled, momentarily distracted enough that he was beheaded by a Kumo-nin.

"One down!" He said, before the headless body cut him in half.

"Fuck you thought, you bastard? I'm not dead yet!"

That was new, Naruto mused. In the moment he'd taken his eyes off of Itachi, the man had vanished, and Naruto cursed internally. Seconds later, he felt a foot on his back, hard enough that he exhaled blood. Itachi was in front of him before he could recover, a knee catching him in the throat before the Uchiha grabbed him by his shirt and slammed his head into the stone road they stood on.

"Never, ever, lose sight of your enemy." Itachi said, vanishing in a murder of crows.

"Get him, Itachi!" Kisame roared, crossing blades with Kirabi. The Hachibi Jinchuriki was on the defensive, despite wielding all eight of his blades. "I never get to see you fight seriously, you always fall back into those Genjutsu!"

Two kunai buried themselves in Naruto's ribs, cold metal piercing through his lungs before he could react. Itachi kicked him in the side of his head, and Naruto hit the pavement hard enough that he bounced back like a blow-up punching doll. Itachi responded in kind, a second kick hitting the opposite side of Naruto's head. This time, he left a hole in the ground when he recovered.

Itachi Uchiha was a Genjutsu master, but that didn't mean he was weak in Ninjutsu or Taijutsu. The young man, just three short years older than Naruto, had slaughtered his entire clan when he'd been younger than Naruto was now.

Naruto broke off, managing to take one wheezing breath before Itachi cut his hamstrings and drive two kunai into Naruto's knees.

He was completely outclassed here. Calling forth three _Kage Bunshin,_ the clones engaged Itachi for long enough that Naruto was able to dislodge the weapons from his body.

* * *

"Doton: Nawatobi Ishi!" Tayuya called out, seven rocks rising before flying at timed intervals.

Kakuzu broke them all, punching through three of them and activating his _Raiton: Gian_ to destroy the other four. The lightning struck Tayuya, and while she was healed quickly, she was still raw from the pain.

"Suiton: Gyaku Funsha!" The Reverse Thrust technique lived up to its name, twin cannons of water shooting from Kakuzu's hands that shoved him backwards, providing space between them. "Raiton: Ogonshoku Enko!"

Two lines of lightning arced up, the circuit running from Kakuzu's hands to Tayuya's soaked body and back. The burning wrenched a scream out of her lungs, but the assualt stopped suddenly when a Kumo-nin shoved his sword through Kakuzu's back. Unknown to anyone but the four Akatsuki members present, he'd just run through one of the Taki-nukenin's five hearts.

Growling, Kakuzu spun around and slammed the back of his fist into the Kumo shinobi's jaw, hitting hard enough that his neck snapped almost immediately. Tayuya made a note to keep Kakuzu at the distance he seemed comfortable with; she clearly wouldn't be able to compete with his Taijutsu, because it was impossible that she'd dodge every attack, and she didn't want to test the strength of the Sanbi's regenerative powers yet.

"You've survived two of my hearts...that takes power. It's clear, you really _were_ one of Orochimaru's elite."

"How do you-"

"He used to be a member of our organization. After Itachi nearly killed him, because he didn't feel like killing at the moment, Orochimaru left. Lost his left hand, too...not that it mattered to him, of course. That snake, and Hidan, and I...we're all particularly hard to kill. Almost as difficult as a Jinchuriki, and maybe more. Why don't we see? Itachi is making a ragdoll out of the Kyuubi, Hidan's target is the Nibi, Kisame is playing swords with the Hachibi...so you fall to me. Fortunately, you've gotten my interest. Due to being one of Orochimaru's former guards, you've amassed quite a bounty. I don't suppose you've looked at the latest Bingo Book?"

"Uh, no?"

"Two hundred thousand ryo alive. One hundred thousand ryo dead. Kitamon no Tayuya, B-rank nukenin of Otogakure? Presumed ally of Konohagakure?"

"Well, that sounds like me." That was a lot of money. That was a _lot_ of money. "Orochimaru really wants me back that badly?"

"Apparently so. Fortunately for you, you'll be going back dead."

Compared to what she'd lived through, she knew that would be a mercy.

"Sorry. I'm not planning on coming with you, today or ever."

"A pity. Still, I suppose it's only right that money needs to be earned..." Kakuzu moved forward to attack, weaving hand seals faster than Tayuya could blink. "Katon: Zukokku!"

The small fireball shot out from in front of Kakuzu's face, and Tayuya raised a _Doheki_ on instinct. The resounding explosion told her all she needed to know about what would have happened if she'd done anything else, as her wall of earth was burnt to ashes by the Searing Migraine technique.

"What the fuck?"

"That's what happens when you live for a hundred years."

* * *

Itachi was more skilled in Kenjutsu with a single kunai than Naruto was with his falx, and that fact genuinely irritated the blond. Sure, he was no Kenjutsu expert, and he freely admitted that he didn't exactly study advanced forms to incorporate his weapon into, but still...what was that old adage about size being important?

And here Itachi was, proving him wrong. With just one knife, Itachi was good enough to keep Naruto at bay. When he'd fought Kirabi and Yagura at once, he'd been able to hold them both off relatively indefinitely. This level of strength was beyond ridiculous. Clearly, it didn't matter that Itachi's only poor quality was his low chakra reserves; if he ever ran out of chakra to burn, he could always just beat his opponent into the ground.

Had it not been for the fact that he knew the Uchiha would eventually sound a retreat, he would have been drawing on the Kyuubi's chakra to help him. As it was, however, he was still using enough to give himself a Biju cloak...and it barely did anything for him.

"This is bullshit!" He yelled.

"No, Naruto. This is the true power of the Uchiha."

"Oh, fuck off with that shit."

Naruto swung, only for the inside of his elbow to get Itachi's kunai shoved straight through it and left embedded.

"You cannot stand against me. Nobody can."

While the words were pure bravado, to a degree, Itachi also believed them. He held the power within him to redeem his clan, and his brother, from the curse of hatred that had plagued them since time immemorial. He had unintentionally fought in the last days of the Third Great War and awoken his Sharingan as a four-year-old, protected an orphaned Uchiha Izumi during the Kyuubi attack at age seven, and graduated from Konoha's ninja academy at eight. His promotion to Chunin at nine, and admission into the ranks of Anbu at ten, weren't the end of the climb to his heights of prowess as a shinobi. At twelve, he was made the captain of Anbu Team Ro, after Kakashi had stepped down and left the corps to reintegrate with regular forces. And then, at thirteen...he had become the man known as the _Shinzoku no Hitogoroshi._ The Kinslayer, the Soulless Sharingan.

All were his names. He had earned them. He deserved them.

Around his neck hung a plain, wooden pendant with the Uchiha clan's war-fan symbol engraved into it. Inside, when opened, it had a picture on either side; one was of his Genin team, and the other was of Izumi. The girl herself hadn't been anything special, save to Itachi.

She had thanked him before he watched her die in his arms, the first victim of the Uchiha Massacre. He would not let her sacrifice be in vain. He had hardened his heart and saved his brother's life, all thanks to her death.

As more and more ninja began to arrive, with Jiraiya and the Raikage coming close behind, Itachi closed his eyes and activated the failsafe.

"Retreat!" He called out, and the other three Akatsuki members all stopped in their tracks before a killing blow was dealt to them. "We will meet again, Naruto..."

Once again bursting into a murder of crows, the jutsu on all three remaining Akatsuki members gave out, revealing who the ninja truly were.

* * *

Miles away, Itachi clutched at his pendant, whispering a prayer.

He never saw the masked figure watching him. He never saw the kunai that they drew.

He never saw them vanish.


	21. On the Road Again

**Well, shit, I did it. Also, technically, two chapters inside of 24 hours. That's pretty sweet. Hope you all enjoy!**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. Aaeru: Cliffhangers are love, cliffhangers are life. Cliffhangers may be the reason I'm going to hell. As far as the fight scenes: it's honestly a reflex to keep the story moving and not get caught up in one fight for several chapters, e.g. the final battle in Kiri whereas I glossed over most of the fighting during the rebellion in favor of that big chunk of fluff.**

 **2\. BoB teh Snail: For now, at least, Itachi is safe, as you'll see in this chapter. I can't speak about the future. He _is_ my favorite character in the series, though. He might survive. Who knows?**

 **3\. Lord Bedhead: No, it's not everybody's favorite Good Boy (TM), but...well, you'll see. The plot I'm threading through may take a little while to come to fruition, but fear not! When seeds are planted, they will grow.**

 **4\. animeficfan: I know, right? Itachi is _the_ ninja. Hell, Obito straight-up says, "Itachi could have killed me," in canon. I really enjoy the posthumous reveal for all of his actions, and the trope of, "this pacifist is arguably the deadliest man on earth."**

 **Thanks for all your support! Here's chapter 21!**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"What did you see?" Pein asked.

Four figures stood alone in a room, the rain outside pouring down. Walls of cold metal surrounded them; this was Amegakure, the base of Akatsuki's operations. Pein, in his Deva Path, stood with Konan at his side. Opposite the two of them were a pair of masked ninja; a man with only the right eye revealed, and a woman with holes cut for both eyes.

Pein looked into those eyes, and saw three Sharingan. While he held full confidence in his abilities with the Rinnegan, as well as his Rikudo Pein, these two always set him on edge for a very specific reason: He knew the man was stronger than any one, two, or even four of his Paths.

There was also the fact that Itachi had slaughtered his entire clan in a single night, aside from his brother, and yet two ninja with the Uchiha clan's signature Dojutsu were right in front of him.

"He was praying. To what, to whom, I don't know. All the same, he was praying." The woman stated.

The masked ninja directly in front of Pein went by the name of Tobi; it was not Tobi who Pein had been addressing. His associate, who Pein presumed to be his child, was Maya. While Tobi's mask was an orange swirl, like an off-center Uzumaki crest, Maya's was the traditional red-and-white of the Uchiha, and Pein almost would have thought it represented a sunrise over snow.

Her dark hair fell well past her shoulders, to the small of her back, but that was hardly a clue to her identity. Dye was easy to come by, and just as easy to apply. Her natural hair could have been any hue, and merely changed for the sake of inconspicuousness. Yet, nothing else but her pale skin gave any hint to who she might have been. It was mildly frustrating to the man who proclaimed himself a god.

"Did he sense you?" Tobi asked.

"Not a chance. Still...something seems off. Displays like that aren't something he's prone to, particularly in the last six years." She said, referring to the Uchiha Massacre. "He's always been a little more self-controlled than that."

"And what did you see of the battle?"

"Hidan was getting beaten, badly. Not that we could expect much better of him, overconfident as he is. Kisame is a relatively even match for the Hachibi, and Kakuzu for the Sanbi. Kakuzu will be upset, though, since he lost his Lightning Heart."

"And the Kyuubi?" Pein asked.

"Itachi demolished him with pure Taijutsu after casting the Tsukuyomi."

"He survived the Tsukuyomi enough to continue fighting, let alone with his mind intact?" Tobi asked.

Most people would be killed or sent into a coma. Even then, those who woke from it would suffer psychological damage until they died. All four of the ninja present in their meeting had seen Itachi use it.

"I was surprised as well. It seems the Kyuubi is more resilient than its brethren."

"That will be all, Maya." Pein said. "You may leave us."

She nodded, vanishing in a _Kamui._

"We'll hold back on gauging the other Jinchuriki's powers, and resume waiting for the next two years." Tobi said. "Raise our prices a little, so that we're not completely offset by the money we've raised before now, but still well under the competitive rate. Kakuzu will like that."

And of course, if Kakuzu liked something, Hidan didn't. Nobody was particularly fond of the Jashin priest, given his foul mouth and bad attitude towards everyone in their organization, so they were perfectly fine with playing favorites to the rogue Taki-nin.

* * *

"How long have you been there?"

"Long enough for you to have noticed me, obviously, Itachi-kun." Maya said.

"Don't call me that." The look in his eyes was a warning. "Only one girl was ever allowed to, and she's dead. I killed her myself."

"Yes, yes, Itachi-kun, we all know your sob story."

"Last chance before I kill another Sharingan-user."

"Okay! Sorry! Maya will be a good girl! Please don't kill me!"

She was overdoing it on purpose, just like Tobi.

"Why do you do it?" He asked. "The mask, the antics, the...everything. I can't figure it out."

He _could_ figure it out, and there were only two explanations: either he'd passed over someone during the massacre, or she was actually Tobi's daughter. Neither of those options made sense, however. Tobi didn't look like he could be much older than thirty, and Maya had proclaimed herself to be older than Itachi when they met. According to her, she was twenty-one, and he was eighteen.

Itachi knew for a fact that no nine-year-old boy had ever sired a child.

"I do it because...well, because I don't want people to know who I am! Especially _you,_ Itachi-kun. I want you to get so eaten up by the curiosity that you can't help ripping off my mask! Oh, and then we can fall in love, and kiss, and you can throw me onto a bed and make me scream your name, and..." Maya collapsed into a giggling fit. "Itachi-sama, what can your lovely Maya do for you?"

The last sentence was said in a mock-sweet tone, but Itachi sat through it in silence.

"You're no fun to tease." She said, huffing out an exaggerated sigh.

"Thank you. I take pride in that."

"Now...I watched your battle. Why did you let them go?"

Before she could blink, she'd been tackled and Itachi held a kunai to her throat.

"Don't worry. I won't tell Tobi."

Without warning, she drew him into her _Kamui_ dimension. Unlike the _Tsukuyomi,_ which was a mind-damaging Genjutsu, the _Kamui_ technique was a space-time Kinjutsu that was similarly unique to the wielders of the Mangekyou Sharingan.

"Say whatever it is you want to say, in here, Itachi-kun."

"I don't trust Tobi. Or you, for that matter."

"We're all S-ranked criminals, Itachi-kun. Trust is something to give to friends and loved ones, not work associates. For what it's worth, though, I trust you."

Given what she'd preceded the claim with, that was pure lunacy.

"Do you, now?"

"I trust you to do what's right for our home, just like you always have. That night, Tobi saved my life...I forgave you a long time ago. I love you too much to hate you."

So he'd been right, then. He _hadn't_ missed anybody in the massacre.

"Then..."

"Will you trust me now, Itachi-kun?" She unclipped her mask, and Itachi sank to his knees as it fell from her face.

That was all the response she needed.

* * *

"Who were they?" Jiraiya asked.

"A Genin team, and their Jounin-sensei." E said, bowing his head in their memory. "Good kids...and a terrible fate. I'd sent them on a C-rank mission to Ame no Kuni a month ago, and they were supposed to have come back last week. When they didn't return, I just thought they'd been waylaid for a few days because the mission went poorly. I didn't think they'd been killed, or that they could be used like this."

At those words, Naruto thought back to his first C-rank mission, to Nami no Kuni. The first ninja he'd killed was one of the Demon Brothers; Sasuke had taken the other one. Sakura hung back, protecting Tazuna while Kakashi watched from afar. He remembered his first fight, with Zabuza...and then, the battle on the bridge, where Haku had left Sasuke comatose and Naruto had nearly killed the ice-wielding ninja in revenge. Gato's betrayal of his shinobi henchmen, immediately followed by Naruto's slaughter of the low-level mercenaries he'd hired.

Zabuza's parting words, after the bridge had finished being built: _"We'll meet again, gaki. Count on it."_

That had been a good mission.

"Naruto! Naruto, snap out of it, are you okay?" Tayuya shook him by his shoulder, rousing him from his reverie.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Nothing's hurt but my pride, honestly."

To be fair, his ego had taken an enormous blow. Shouldn't having both halves of the Kyuubi inside of him make him stronger than he'd been before? He didn't understand it. Maybe that was the real difference between a natural-born talent and someone who'd worked to earn their strength. For all that Itachi had played nice inside of the _Tsukuyomi,_ his attacks upon their return had been monstrously powerful. Just using one of the three cornerstones of ninja training, Taijutsu, Itachi had turned Naruto into his personal punching bag and pincushion.

He hadn't enjoyed the sensation, though his newly improved healing factor allowed him to regenerate the damage without scars.

"Are you sure, piss-brain? I mean..."

Nobody had ever beaten him that thoroughly. Not Kirabi, not Yagura. Not Orochimaru or Sasuke. Not even Jiraiya, despite all their spars across the year and more that they'd been training. Itachi was in an entire class of his own.

That was the level of power that Naruto would need to reach in order to protect himself in the future. He didn't know if he could do that.

"Hey...is it really alright that we've stayed here this long?" Naruto asked, looking at Jiraiya and E.

"What do you mean? This has been a great opportunity to spend time with you all, and forge a better alliance with Konoha." E said. "Besides, Kirabi and Yugito get lonely when they just have themselves and their demons."

"No, I mean, there were four of us here. The Akatsuki tried to capture us, even though they can't seal us away, because of that. Right? I doubt they just showed up to check on how powerful we were. So...it's better if we don't stay here much longer, to avoid something like that happening again."

"There's strength in numbers, Naruto-kun." Yugito said. "We beat them this time, so there's no reason to say that we'll lose next time!"

"We didn't win, though. They retreated." Tayuya countered. "Either the chakra powering their jutsu ran out, or they saw birdshit-sensei and the Raikage coming over and decided that they'd played around with us for long enough. And now, they've shown that they're not above attacking a hidden village directly if that's what it takes to capture a Jinchuriki."

"I don't want to put more people at risk." Naruto added on, completing the logic to his original statement. "Innocent people died today because Tayuya and I were here. Whether I like it or not, their blood is on my hands."

"No. They chose to defend you, their actions were thought through." Kirabi said. "Don't blame yourself, that's not good for your health."

"Even so, as someone who wants to be the Hokage one day, I could never accept something like this happening in Konoha. And if I can't accept it there, then I can't accept it here. I'm sorry for the trouble we caused." Naruto said. "We'll be leaving soon."

Jiraiya wanted to disagree, but he could barely hide his elation.

Some wounds never healed, and his parents' deaths would always be one of them.

* * *

"Did you really mean what you said?" Tayuya asked. "About leaving?"

"Yeah, I did. I can't stand the idea that people are put in danger because of me." Naruto responded. "Hell, being a nukenin is easy, you just have to look out for yourself. Being a village ninja, though...you have to worry about everybody else, too."

"Their deaths weren't your fault." She held him, pulling his taller frame down to rest his head on her shoulder. "They chose to fight. Their village was attacked. You would have done the same, if we were back in Konoha."

That much was true. When Konoha had been attacked during the Chunin exams, Naruto had wasted no time whatsoever in closing in to defeat the greatest threat they'd faced: Gaara, preparing to be fully possessed by the Ichibi. While the Sandaime had taken on Orochimaru, and Jiraiya's toads had fought the rogue Sannin's own summoned snakes, Naruto had charged ahead to challenge his would-be brother in single combat.

"I know." He admitted. "But it still feels like they died because we're here. Because I insisted we come here."

"What would a Kage do in this situation, then?"

"They'd have to move on from it. The cost of a few lives, even several high-profile deaths, is less important than making sure that the village can continue running effectively. You have to put it behind you. The shinobi rules dictate that you must never abandon your mission, no matter what, and a Kage's constant mission is to ensure the safety and survival of the village."

"So what does that tell you, piss-for-brains?" The insult-turned-endearment brought a small smile to Naruto's face.

"It tells me that I'm not ready to be Hokage. I might never be." The words startled Tayuya as Naruto spoke. "I don't want to become that callous, having to send people on possibly lethal missions and knowing that I'm responsible when they don't come back alive."

"The life of a ninja is death." She whispered into his ear, still holding him in a warm hug. "You throw yourself into lethal situations, practically on purpose. Why would you say that others aren't allowed to do the same? Like I did?"

"Because the Hokage is supposed to protect Konoha...not order its people to die."

That was a fair point, Tayuya had to admit. A Kage like Yagura wasn't fit for the office, but Naruto was on the opposite end and clearly not ready for the position...for now. That softness in his heart would make him a kind leader one day, if it didn't get taken out of him.

"I talked with Jiraiya. We're gonna leave tomorrow, and head to Suna." He said.

"Okay. Were you gonna sleep early?"

"Yeah."

As he got into the bed, Tayuya followed suit, one arm around him as she laid halfway onto his chest and snuggled up.

"Love you, piss-brain."

"Love you too, Tayuya-chan."

The pair drifted off, together, to the land of dreams.

* * *

"Are you really sure you want to leave?" Yugito asked.

She, Kirabi, and E were at the western gate to Kumo. Accompanying them were Kirabi's four-man team and E's bodyguards, Shi and Darui.

"Yeah. Don't worry, maybe we'll see you again someday!" Naruto said.

"It'd better be soon, or you'll listen to my tune from morning to night to noon!" Kirabi rhymed his parting words, enjoying the looks of mild horror he gathered from that proclamation.

"You'd better fuckin' not!" Tayuya argued.

"Blasphemy against my rap, that be! Don't mess with the rhymes of Kirabi!"

"You'll always be welcome back here. I'll tape my idiot brother's mouth closed if I have to." E said.

Friends in high places, as the saying went.

After saying their goodbyes, the sextet of Jiraiya, Tayuya, and four Uzumaki headed southwest, for the deserts of Kaze no Kuni and Sunagakure no Sato. Traveling at a much more leisurely pace than they had on their way to Kumo, it was a full week before they arrived on the outskirts of the desert nation. Two days afterward, they made it to the twin cliffs whose narrow passage led to Suna.

* * *

"Business?" The gate's guardian asked.

"Meeting with the Kazekage." Jiraiya said. It wasn't strictly the truth, as there was no meeting set, but they _had_ come to see him...

"Really? That's a different one than normal. Most people are here for the Chunin Exams, at the moment."

"Suna's hosting, this time around?" Jiraiya asked. "Good for them. Who knows, you two might see some of your friends."

"We're in the month's grace period before the third stage of the exam begins. Still got a couple weeks left on it...well, your passports check out, your identification cards are all valid, you're all free to go in, I guess. Should I send a message ahead, for the Kazekage to expect you?"

"No need." Jiraiya said. "Something tells me he already knows we're here."

Just a few streets down the road, Gaara was walking. Though Naruto didn't remember conversation to be a particular specialty for the Ichibi Jinchuriki, he was talking casually to the street vendors he passed. Looking up, he caught them in his gaze, and a thin grin made its way onto his face.

"My friends." He said, arms wide in welcome. "Welcome to Suna!"

He followed the gesture with a quick headcount.

"There's a few more of you than I remember. Did Tayuya's mother find you and force you to have children?"

Had Gaara just joked?

"Uh, negative on that one, pal." Tayuya said.

"We should probably talk in your office." Jiraiya added.

Oboro, while miffed at being mistaken for the wrong person's family, was inwardly flattered that the young Kazekage thought she looked so young. Of course, it didn't really matter to her that she really _did_ look that young, only kept the way she was by some inexplicable miracle of chakra in the Labyrinth.

"Naruto-onii isn't our dad!" Rei said, puffing up her cheeks and pouting.

"He was joking, Rei-onee. Don't take everything so serious- _lay._ "

At the youngest Uzumaki's words, Naruto and Tayuya both noticeably stiffened

Sabaku no Gaara was telling jokes, and Uzumaki Kouga had begun imitating Kirabi.

Grass would turn red, water would taste dry, Hatake Kakashi would stop reading _Icha Icha Paradise_ novels. The signs of the apocalypse were clearly beginning.

The world was doomed.

And it was all Naruto's fault.


	22. Prior to Suna Exams, I

**Barely lost to the deadline...dammit. Oh well, have some more filler, and some plot. I hope you enjoy the comedy, too!**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. draven32: Well, I set the clues up to be found, and you found them. What part she'll play is up for discussion or interpretation, though...**

 **2\. OneLunchMan: Considering that all I have is the wiki, as I'm too lazy to actually dig and find the episodes where she's featured, she'll probably turn out a little more OC than canon. However, she'll prescribe more to what I describe as Minato's Will of Fire, rather than the generally thought-of Will of Fire that's attributed to Hashirama and Hiruzen.**

 **The Shodaime and Sandaime Hokage were shown to always have the interests of the village in their hearts, doing the most good they could for as many people as possible...something seen in the Sandaime's death; while ultimately a futile gesture, Hiruzen took away Orochimaru's arms and believed in his death that he'd eliminated his rogue student's threat to the world. Hashirama showed it by ending the Senju-Uchiha feud, founding Konoha and doing his best to promote global peace throughout the Elemental Nations. That is, in canon, the Will of Fire.**

 **Minato and Itachi, however, showcase a different understanding of it. Just as fire can warm and soothe, rather than burn and destroy, their Will of Fire dictates a singular passion for specific individuals whose lives hold more meaning than the greater populace around them. For Itachi, that was Izumi before he killed her, and Sasuke for his entire life. For Minato, it was Kushina and (prior to his own death) Naruto.**

 **My intention is to have her fall in line with the latter interpretation.**

 **3\. Aaeru: I can see it now: somehow attributing all the events in series canon to Naruto, regardless of whether or not he was there at the time, or even born. Madara's defection, and the battle that created the Valley of the End, _must_ be our blond protagonist's fault _somehow._**

 **Also, you're right: I couldn't have Naruto go for the total game-break powers this early in the series. That'd take all the fun out of writing, although it would give me a nice excuse to make all of his enemies _even stronger._ God, could you imagine what Pein could do if he could utilize all the Rinnegan's abilities in each Path simultaneously? The ultimate, "oh, you thought you were strong?"**

 **4\. animeficfan: We'll see. It will never be in a main focus for this story, but just like the last update, I could certainly manage to throw in a few Itachi-centric chapters now and again. You're right, he really did deserve a happy ending. Technically, I guess you could say that he got one. Don't worry too much!**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"So, that's the current situation, as far as I've learned." Jiraiya said.

He'd just spent the last ten minutes explaining the situation since their departure from Kirigakure, with the other five members of their group chipping in at various points. Gaara was particularly amused by the reverence with which Rei and Kouga viewed Naruto. To them, the older Uzumaki could do no wrong, a laid-back elder brother compared to the harsh taskmaster that Oboro was for them.

"Akasuna no Sasori, you said?" Gaara asked. "You're certain that was the name of the Suna-nukenin in the Akatsuki?"

"Beyond the shadow of a doubt." Jiraiya replied.

"That's very bad. I never met the man, but his spy network is reputedly the largest in the world, and his skill with puppets proves why his family name is true."

"I also heard an unfortunate rumor about the events surrounding Suna during the time when he went rogue." Jiraiya added. "Didn't the Sandaime Kazekage vanish shortly before?"

"Yes, and Sasori's grandmother Chiyo is our foremost expert on poisons. He was also famous for turning the corpses of his enemies into puppets that retained their chakra signatures and the ability to cast jutsu."

 _Unfortunate_ wasn't really the correct word to use. _Catastrophic_ would have been a better fit. Still, Gaara's words only confirmed the worry that had come over any ninja to have lived through, or heard of, that period of time when his grandfather had held the position of Kazekage.

The Sabaku family were Sunagakure's ancestral rulers, going back even farther than the Warring Clans era. Each Kazekage held some sort of dominion over the sand, which meant that Gaara had been destined for the position from birth. His father's Gold Dust, his grandfather's Iron Sand, his own status as the Ichibi Jinchuriki...he would be connected to the past, and to the future, through the powers he wielded.

"Still..." The Kazekage began, "it would be nice to talk of better things. Happier things. Naruto, I think you'll see some familiar faces here...your old team is competing, and both of them made it to the tournament this time around. So did their fill-in for your spot, a girl named Tenten? I remember her calling you her brother during our exams."

"We have _another_ big sister?" Rei asked.

"Naruto-onii, how could you hide that from us?" Kouga demanded

"She's not actually related to me." Naruto said, trying to placate the twins. "We lived together as children, before she was adopted by Jie Higurashi. That old man could only take one of us, and I made him take her instead of me."

"Jie? As in, the Jie clan?" Oboro asked.

"Far as I know, he's the only one left, obaa-chan. Well, aside from Ten-chan. Why, is something wrong?"

"We'll talk later, Mago-kun." Those words felt more like dead weight than a promise of answers. Naruto wasn't certain he wanted to find out why.

"Okay. Anyway, that's good to know! Is anybody else from Konoha in the tournament?"

"No. However, we do have shinobi from Kumo and Kiri participating, so the Raikage and Mizukage should arrive in a little less than two weeks."

Two of Naruto's clones popped up beside Gaara, and began to chant in singsong voices.

"Mei and Gaara, layin' in a tree, F-U-C-" Two spikes of sand dispersed the clones before they could finish the rhyme. Much to his consternation, a third came into existence.

"-I-N-G! First comes _love,_ then comes-" It was destroyed, and a fourth was willed into existence.

"-marriage, then comes a _baby_ in a baby carriage!"

"Are you done?" Gaara asked. "While it's true that I...enjoy her company, you don't have to be so..."

"Vulgar?" Jiraiya asked.

"Obnoxious?" Oboro asked.

"Insufferable?" Tayuya asked.

"Correct?" Naruto asked.

When all eyes in the room turned to look at him, he gave his best indignant look.

"Oh, like you two didn't have eyes that could see how they acted around each other!" He said, pointing at Jiraiya and Tayuya before he turned to look at his kinsmen. "And you three weren't even there, how would you know?"

Spinning around, he faced Gaara and his siblings.

"Temari, Kankuro, back me up here!" He demanded. "You know I'm right!"

"Naruto, much as I like you, much as you've done for me and my family and this village..." Kankuro trailed off for a moment. "Gaara is both my little brother and my boss, and a _lot_ stronger than me. Even if I wanted to back you up, I don't think I would."

"Coward!" Naruto cried. "Temari-chan...no, Temari- _sama,_ please agree with me! You know I'm right!"

"Oh, do I? Pray tell, Naruto-kun, how _exactly_ could I be convinced that you're in the right here?"

The quadruple-ponytail-touting blonde winked at Tayuya, a sign not to take anything in poor taste. She had to admit, seeing Naruto grovel this comically was a nice change of pace.

"A candle-lit dinner for two, every night for a year, at the restaurant of your choice! A diamond for every clone I can summon! The teeth of the great Shai-Hulud, to be made into a new fan for your magnificence!" Naruto declared dramatically. "A ring of gold for each of your fingers, a necklace of Uzushio-born pearls! Earrings made of flawless sapphire, and a headdress made from the pinions of a dozen hawks!"

"Hmm...that sounds nice, but I just don't know...I think I'll side with my otoutou." Temari grinned.

Naruto clutched at his chest over the mock betrayal, imitating a stab to his heart.

"You wound me, mighty princess of the desert!" Naruto cried. "Oh, but for all the riches that might have been yours, had you merely said yes!"

"What the hell, piss-for-brains? How come you're saying you'll get her all that stuff? We've known each other for more than a year now, and you've never asked _me_ what _I_ want from you!" Tayuya's words weren't meant hurtfully, and they all knew it.

"Because Temari-sama doesn't insult me, or my intelligence, based on the color of my hair! Unlike _some_ people!" Naruto said.

"Piss-brain, I needed to explain to you for fifteen fuckin' minutes that the moon isn't the same size as the sun. On three separate occasions. In two days."

"They look like they're the same size! Anyone else would have been fooled, too!"

"No, Mago-kun, that's fairly common knowledge."

"Yeah, onii-chan, even _we_ know that!" Kouga said.

Naruto sank to the floor dramatically, miming his death throes.

"At least...in my final moments...I was able to make peace with the fact that...idyit sezwut..."

"What?" Everyone else asked simultaneously.

"HA! MOTHERFUCKIN' GOT YA!" Naruto shot up as he yelled, summoning two clones to parade himself around the Kazekage's office.

One by one, faces met palms as they rewound the last few seconds in their memories and realized what he'd said.

 _Idiot says, "what?"_

* * *

"Oboro obaa-chan...you said you wanted to talk."

"Yes. Please, sit."

Naruto made himself comfortable in a chair, while Oboro sat on the edge of her bed.

"This is about Ten-chan and Higurashi otou-san, isn't it? Their clan."

"Yes." Oboro confirmed.

"What about it?"

"Their history, and the Uzumaki. You know the legend of the Rikudo Sennin?"

How could Naruto not? The myth was famous throughout the world.

"His twin sons were the ancestors of the Uchiha and the Senju clans, with the Hyuuga being an offshoot caused by the Sharingan's mutation into the Byakugan." Naruto said. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"It doesn't. However, a separate legend says that the Rikudo Sennin had an older brother, one whose ancestry was claimed by five families: the Kumiro of Iwa, the Zateshi of Kiri, the Gobira of Suna, the Jie of Konoha, and our own Uzumaki clan. Now, what can you tell me about any of those five clans?"

"I've never heard of the first three, did they get wiped out? Higurashi otou-san is the last true-born Jie, and the Uzumaki were slaughtered, so it'd fit the pattern."

"That's right. All five clans were powerful in their own right. While the Rikudo Sennin's children gained overpowering Dojutsu and incredibly potent chakra, his brother's five lines each inherited a different mastery over the shinobi arts. The Kumiro were feared for their Genjutsu ability. The Zateshi were master assassins. The Gobira had enough chakra control that they didn't need to use hand seals to create jutsu. The Uzumaki were Fuinjutsu masters, and the Jie...many of them founded the samurai order in Tetsu no Kuni, though that branch of their family died out long ago. The Jie were unquestioned masters of Kenjutsu, experts with any weapon, and able to forge beyond the capabilities of normal men."

"And?" Naruto didn't know why she was telling him this, though he was grateful for the information.

"That sword you carry was made by a Jie, and corrupted by the Kyuubi's influence...I can tell just by looking at it. You clearly seem familiar with the man, did you ever watch him forge?"

"Yeah."

"What was the song that he sang?"

Naruto was puzzled by the question, but chanted the short poetry regardless.

"Wash the spears when the sun climbs high. Wash the spears when the sun climbs low."

The sword on his back hummed, seeming to resonate with the words he spoke.

"Wash the spears. Who fears to die? Wash the spears...no one I know."

Both halves of the Kyuubi inside of him roared, and Naruto saw in his mind an ancient battlefield.

 _A man dressed in armor, with a cloth wrap over his head, rode the Kyuubi and spun his spear as they crashed into the enemy ranks. Blood indistinguishable from the little hair that could be seen through his veil, he laughed as fiercly as his demonic mount roared. With one hand, he fought using his spear. With the other, he defeated his enemies bare-handed. Three swords hung at his side and back, a rack of throwing knives belted across his chest._

 _The world was fire and blood...the fire of his passion. The blood of his enemies._

The vision faded, his last glimpse of the carnage of that battlefield, and Naruto paused.

"What the hell was _that?_ "

"Did something happen?" Oboro asked. "I didn't feel anything."

"No, just...the Kyuubi reacted."

"Those words were designed as a coercion for the Biju prior to chakra's discovery, in the event that one was rampaging or a Jinchuriki lost control. That's the likely reason."

"If it's from before the Rikudo Sennin, how were there Jinchuriki?"

"Sealing is an art older than Ninjutsu, though before chakra's discovery, it could only be performed by groups of incredibly strong priests...that was before the gods died, and left mankind to suffer in this world alone."

Every sentence Oboro said, every answer Oboro gave, only raised more questions for her grandson. He would let them rest for the time being, though, because there were people he wanted to see.

Mentally, he told himself to ask the Kyuubi about it later.

* * *

"So I heard you three tried to compete in the exams without me, huh?" Naruto wrapped his arms around all of the temporary Team Seven's members, taking no small amount of pride in the fact that he'd now grown taller than all of them, even Sasuke.

"Naruto!" All three of them said at once.

"What are you doing here?" Sakura asked as Naruto pulled away, grinning.

"Oh, an old teammate can't swing by to cheer his friends on?" Naruto pouted. "Good job, by the way. Kakashi-sensei do a better job teaching you since I left?"

"Otou-san has been helping me with my bladework. He says he can hardly tell that I'm adopted!" Tenten beamed.

"Is he here?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah! You should come see him, later! I'm sure he'll want to know how that sword's worked for you!"

"Oh, speaking of things that were given to you...where's Tayuya? I want to know if the flute has been as good as we hoped!" Sakura said, smiling.

"Right here." Tayuya released the Genjutsu she'd woven around herself to stay invisible. "It plays as wonderfully as ever, I can't thank you enough."

"That's great!" Sakura said.

"So, Naruto...care to fill us in on everything that's happened since you left? You've had no contact with the village, as far as I know."

"Sure, sure. Hell, why not make a meal out of it? I swiped Ero-sennin's checkbook when he wasn't looking...again. His treat."

"You shouldn't do that so often, piss-for-brains, or else he's gonna find out."

"Hey, this is only the...fifth or sixth time I've done it! Besides, have you _seen_ how many zeroes his accounting book has in it? The old perv's loaded all the way to hell and back, he can afford taking the five of us out to dinner!"

"Not with your stomach, he can't." Tayuya looked down as the organ in question rumbled audibly. "You could probably wipe out a trillion ryo in one sitting."

"Only in ramen, and only at the Ichiraku's." Naruto countered.

* * *

They were going out to eat, upon Gaara's recommendation, at a small diner in Suna's lower west quarter. While the clay and stucco buildings weren't something Naruto was used to, he was familiar with the general layout of hidden villages. While Kumo's directions had been flipped, and the city itself had been much larger than it seemed due to its surrounding mountains, Suna was built the same way Konoha had been.

Sasuke and Sakura were openly uncomfortable, seeing the level of poverty in the slums. Naruto, Tenten and Tayuya had lived it.

"Hey, hey, mister ninja! Want to play?" A small boy ran up, tugging at the hem of Naruto's shirt.

The quintet stopped moving, Naruto and Tenten looking to each other before the blond crouched down to the boy's height.

"Who's your Banchou, kid?" Naruto asked.

"Uh...I am! Hiiro is the one who runs this street, and Hiiro's me!"

The boy couldn't have been more than six years old, and the idea that he could be the leader of a street-rat gang was laughable. It had taken Naruto almost eight years to cement his reign as the top urchin in Konoha's slums. At most, he'd probably talked his way into leading one or two strays who didn't have a pack to run the streets with.

"Well, Hiiro...you're talking to the former top Banchou of Konoha, before I became a shinobi. Nobody was under my command, but everybody listened to me. You know why that is?"

"Really, you was? How can I do that?"

"Saying you're a leader isn't enough, Hiiro. You have to act like one. You're responsible for all your kouhai. Understand? When was the last time you ate?"

"Earlier today, Banchou-sama! We got off good, they didn't saw us."

"Okay, here's what I want you to do." Naruto said, fishing into his pocket and withdrawing his wallet before pulling a couple hundred-ryo notes from it. "Go to that vendor over there, give him this money and ask him about giving you the fruits he won't be able to sell. Alright?"

"Okay, Banchou-sama!"

With any luck, the street vendor would never notice that the bills vanished into thin air until a long, long time after.

"One more thing...do you have a family name?"

"No, Banchou-sama. Hiiro is just Hiiro."

"Well, how about I give you one?" Naruto said in a conspiring tone. "From one Banchou to another. You can take my first name as your family name. I'm Uzumaki Naruto. That makes you Naruto Hiiro. And the other thing I want you to do, Hiiro...enter the shinobi academy as soon as you can."

"That's in just a few months!" Hiiro said excitedly. "Wow, Naruto Banchou-sama...thanks!"

"You're welcome, Hiiro. If you're ever in Konoha, come find me. Who knows, by then I might be the Hokage!"

The two bumped fists, with Hiiro running away as Naruto stood.

"You're..." Sakura struggled to find words.

"Every word of that was true." Naruto said. "And you'll never mention it again. Now, back on track to that restaurant? I did promise you all a dinner."

They found their way to the diner shortly, talking as they ate. Naruto and Tayuya had both agreed beforehand that they wouldn't mention Danzo, and the Naruto had chosen not to reveal Itachi's secrets to the, "last loyal Uchiha," just yet.

"You fought in Kiri's rebellion?" Tenten asked.

"Okay, at least that's believable." Sakura said. "But do you really think we'll believe you were the one who killed the Yondaime Mizukage? That's a tall tale, even for you."

"Ask Mei-chan when she gets here, since you clearly won't take our word for it. Of course, that'll require you separating her from Gaara first..."

Naruto was very thankful that the aforementioned Kazekage wasn't present, and therefore couldn't choose to threaten him via desert castration.

He wouldn't have held the idea against Gaara.

"And...one last thing. You say you fought Itachi?"

"It wasn't really a fight. It was more like he kicked my ass so bad that I'm _still_ hurting. All he did was use Taijutsu and some kunai, and the fucker probably could've killed me. It felt like he was toying with me, and that shit pisses me off."

Sasuke knew the feeling unfortunately well. No amount of training had ever seemed to put him anywhere closer to his elder brother's nigh omnipotence. It was frustrating; even though Sasuke was naturally talented as well, he'd worked hard to reach the strength he had...and yet, he still felt that the gap between them hadn't shrunk at all. Rather, it almost seemed that for every step Sasuke moved forward, Itachi walked three more.

"I meant what I said, at the Valley of the End." Sasuke began. "You're going to train with me until I'm certain that I can kill him."

Despite his internal misgivings, Naruto grinned.

"I never go back on my word."


	23. Prior to Suna Exams, II

**Slightly under par for wordcount, this chapter. However, I figure it's better to post now rather than risk another day's delay due to my own inability to move past writer's block. My apologies for not writing more quickly, but hey...at the very least, I got another chapter out! That's a good enough reason to celebrate, huh?**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. draven32: Where is Orochimaru? That's...a very good question. I'll be honest, I haven't really thought about him much because the story didn't necessarily need him around during the last twenty-two chapters. I'll have to come up with something, I guess.**

 **2\. OneLunchMan: No, your praise is always welcome! And...yeah, I can see it. Truth be told, that's an interesting idea; it's stated that Kurama is the most powerful of all Biju in canon, able to create tsunamis and tornadoes with its tails. Also, the Nibi is a literal hellcat, so fire is out of the question. Ergo, why not luck? After all, a little bit of luck goes a long way.**

 **Sorry for the wait, and thank you for your support! Here's the next chapter of _Within the Straws I Grasp!_**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"I feel like I'm at a standstill, Ero-sennin."

"How come?"

"Well...what have I really learned in the last six months? It doesn't feel like we've done much since the rebellion in Kiri."

The Sannin looked somewhat taken aback by that notion, though he realized his student was right. The fact that Naruto was able to go toe-to-toe with Jounin-level opponents proved that he'd succeeded in training his godson enough to defend himself and serve Konoha faithfully...but the Akatsuki were still a threat, and Uchiha Itachi was still the member hunting after Naruto. Until his death, or the blond's capture, that wasn't likely to change.

"Still bugged about Itachi?"

"A little." Naruto regretted his lack of ability in the brief assault on Kumo.

"Don't worry about it too much." Jiraiya said. "That man is a freak of nature."

"So am I, and he's _after_ my ass!" Naruto countered angrily. "There's no way in hell you've taught me fifty years' worth of experience in a year and some change! I have to be able to beat him, or at least outlast him!"

"Naruto, I don't even know that I could defeat Itachi." Jiraiya admitted. "Really, there's only one or two things I have left to teach you. Fuinjutsu is a very imprecise art, and Senjutsu training is highly lethal. There's only about a thirty percent survival rate."

"Senjutsu?"

"I'm called the Gama Sennin for a reason." He said. "The toads you and I summon are capable of teaching their summoners how to harness natural energy, which increases the strength of your body and your techniques. Genjutsu woven with chakra boosted by Senjutsu are nearly unbreakable. Ninjutsu become several times stronger, as Senjutsu enriches them. Your Taijutsu attacks will be faster and stronger, and won't have as much of an effect on you. I don't know what effect it'll have on your sword, though."

"Jiraiya."

The fact that Naruto had used his name was enough to make the white-haired Sannin aware of just how serious he was.

"Of course I'll teach you. It'll be difficult, but you're a strong kid...you should make it out alright." Jiraiya grinned. "Just for the record, though, you may want to put away the Uzushio headband and start wearing your Konoha one again. I know how much it means to you, but..."

"Yeah, yeah, I gotcha." Naruto's actions didn't match his words, and Uzumaki Josuke's hitai-ate continued to rest squarely upon his forehead. "I'll think about it."

"And what about when Tsunade-hime sees, once she gets here?"

"She's part Uzumaki, Ero-sennin. She'll be on my side."

That sounded awfully confident for a boy who'd only known Tsunade for two years, compared to Jiraiya's forty-four. Jiraiya knew from experience: Tsunade _never_ chose family. Her brother had died, her lover had died. She'd abandoned her son, and similarly left behind her unknowing grandson.

No...Tsunade would never choose family. She chose herself, long before thinking of others. It wasn't good, or honest, but at least it made her predictable.

Jiraiya enjoyed when people were predictable. It made it easy for people like him, and Naruto, to _not_ be. To expect the unexpected, after all, was to say that nothing was unexpected; that wasn't just untrue, it was complete lunacy in action.

Still, he'd held off on teaching Naruto Senjutsu for a reason. If the boy died in the efforts of learning, it would be on Jiraiya's head...while it was unlikely that he would be executed for the accident, it would irreparably damage his relationship with Konoha, particularly with Kakashi and the faction of Konoha's upper echelon that he seemed to speak for. The Anbu, most of them, were loyal to Tsunade.

While Danzo's Ne operatives didn't personally have a stake in Naruto's life or death, Danzo himself would benefit from the discrediting of Jiraiya's name. With one Sannin rogue, and the other dishonored, it wouldn't be hard to completely dismantle Tsunade's regime. That would be enough to put Danzo's legendary name to more immediate fame, allowing for a legal, and public, coup d'etat.

That meant, no matter what, Naruto would need to survive the harsh training.

"When do you want to start?"

* * *

Thunder rolled across the desert, though no rain came down; it had been humid, which meant the rain wouldn't wait for long, but there was no guarantee that it might specifically fall on Sunagakure.

Twin bolts of lightning struck the ground, three Sharingan active as Kakashi stared down his former brother-in-arms.

"Inu."

"Karasu."

The words were their code. Only Anbu members on the same team knew their teammates' identities, and Kakashi's status as the former Inu Anbu was known to four people outside of himself: Uzuki Yugao, Yamato Tenzo, Shimura Danzo, and Uchiha Itachi.

They knew the others' secrets; they weren't here to shed blood. That was a comfort to both of them, equally uncertain whether he or the other was truly more powerful.

"How is he?"

"Growing stronger. Are you really certain it's alright to keep him in the dark? Naruto redeemed him, but his heart still aims for vengeance...against the wrong man."

"No." The coal-haired Uchiha said. "When his blade comes to pierce my heart, that will be my redemption. Orders or not, I killed my family. I slaughtered them like cattle. An unforgivable crime, no matter the cause behind it. The Curse of Hatred will end with we two, my brother and I. His hatred for me, and my hatred for myself."

Kakashi didn't speak for a moment as Itachi raised his arm, a crow flying down to alight upon his extended finger.

"You're a dutiful brother." Kakashi observed. "I worry about your heart, though."

"You won't have to for much longer." Itachi smirked, a rarity for the late Fugaku's prodigal son. "I don't know what caused it, but I found that I've contracted an illness. Terminal. Hopefully, I'll last long enough that Sasuke can kill me instead. My current estimate is that I have between four and five years left."

"Itachi...if the village knew the truth..."

"Spare me, Inu-san." The words were callous on purpose. Itachi had a surprisingly willful streak in him, perhaps to spite his generally calm demeanor.

It was a message for Kakashi to close off his own heart; Itachi was a nukenin, and there was no mercy for traitors in the world they lived in. Those who broke the rules were garbage, as an older Uchiha had said...but those who abandoned their comrades were unfit to be eaten by maggots, lower than the worst refuse in the world.

Itachi had, in truth, done neither. While his guilt at his actions could be seen as clearly justified, it was just more proof of the man's irony. Itachi was a true pacifist, not guided by the words of war spoken so quickly or so often by many of the other shinobi of their world. The road of ninja was one of death and murder, and while Itachi was one of the best at it, he had always despised killing.

It was one of the things Kakashi respected the most about him.

"As you wish, Karasu." Kakashi bowed his head respectfully.

"Also, about Naruto..."

"Hm?" Kakashi whipped his head back up, staring at Itachi's face intently.

"Make sure he can take his father's place one day."

"It shouldn't be Tsunade in that hat right now. It should be you."

"The hopes and dreams of a traitor hold no place in the minds of his former comrades. That was a life I lived a long, long time ago."

"You're not a traitor."

"You're right, Inu-san. I am a speaker for the dead, and the dead demand justice against me for my crimes. The Sharingan records all it sees, it allows me to forget nothing I've laid my eyes upon. I remember every single one of their faces, Inu-san. I killed my parents, and before they died they told me how proud they were."

"They were."

"They told me to look after Sasuke." Itachi continued. "But I had to leave him behind. Because of me, his life has never been filled with anything but misfortune. To bring me to justice, to kill me, is the only way to save himself from the curse that plagues our clan. I love my brother, Kakashi. I would do anything for him."

The perched crow took flight, wings beating against the humid air. As Itachi began to vanish, like a mirage in the desert, he spoke one final time.

"I will die for him."

After he had gone completely, there was one final crack of thunder before the rain began to fall.

* * *

"Naruto!" Higurashi exclaimed, seeing that Tenten had led him to the hotel where they were staying. "It's good to see you, boy!"

"You too, Higurashi otou-san."

"How's the sword been working for you?" It was a rhetorical question, really.

"Fantastic." Naruto grinned. "This is the sword that killed the Mizukage."

Some things, Naruto would never brag about. In truth, his defeat of Yagura was probably one of them; by the end, he'd been outclassed. Only Tayuya's near-death had kept him from biting dust and pushing daisies...but to his sister-figure's adopted father, the man who'd made the weapon he wielded, he felt comfortable.

"Sanbi no Yagura, the Yondaime Mizukage?" Higurashi's eyes went wide.

"Yeah." Naruto said. "Was a bitch of a fight, too. He had me on the ropes."

"His predecessor was responsible for most of my family's deaths in the Second Great War. I swear, boy, you've brought more honor to me with that sword in a year than I've done for myself in my entire life."

"Now you're just flattering me." Naruto grinned, rubbing the back of his head. "Besides, old man, don't you know your clan name means, 'mercy and love?'"

"Only to those who don't know our history. It did mean that, once, a long time ago...and then, before even the Warring Clans era, was a time of mass bloodshed where my family flourished. One by one, we abandoned our way as peaceful travelers and took up the spear, or the axe. Very few of us wielded swords, but that changed as time went on. Our leaders were branded with the tattoo of a dragon, and we had to fight that fiercely just to survive. It was we who developed the ability to forge chakra-enhanced blades, and our war chant could calm the rage of even the greatest of the Biju."

The words correlated with what Naruto's grandmother had told him, and the vision he'd seen.

"'Mercy and love,' gave way to the ideal of, 'debt and repayment.' Our debt to those who had taught us how to fight was repaid by war, and killing their enemies."

"Is that why the sword was a gift?"

"Yes." Higurashi nodded. "A Jie always repays his debts, and I will no sooner break that tradition now than when I was a child first learning that lesson. I owed you a debt for bringing my daughter into my life. I owed you a debt for the sacrifice it meant for you. I owe you a debt for leading her on the path I could never take myself. I owe you a debt for avenging my family, no matter how much or little you did."

"We'll see about repaying me." Naruto said. "For now, though, the least I can do is acknowledge the debt."

"Hah!" Laughter came from Higurashi's mouth. "You really have grown, boy. You'd make a fine heir, one day."

"Sorry, pops, but no-can-do. Tayuya-chan would wring my neck if she even caught on to the _idea_ that I might be looking at someone else."

"Hm...I suppose you're right. I am the last of true Jie blood, but I still worry for my daughter. You are the only one who I've seen to be worthy enough of her hand, though whether that's truth or simply over-protectiveness...I suppose I'll never know. She is my only child, and all I wish for is her happiness."

"So do I, old man."

 _An empty bowl of ramen, placed down in the back of the alley, his stomach rumbling as Tenten patted hers in contentment._

His sister mattered more than he did. That was how it would always be.

* * *

"Ero-sennin and I are gonna be going on a trip."

"Alone?" Tayuya asked. "I wish I could come with you..."

"I know, I know. Separation is hard, especially for the two of us, right?"

"No, I'm gonna miss having a personal space heater when I sleep, piss-for-brains."

Naruto sighed; there was that scathing tongue again, ready to lambaste him at whatever opportunity she was given.

"You can always hang out with Ten-chan, or even Sakura." He said. "I think they'd enjoy a little girl-time with you...probably just another excuse for you to talk shit about me, though."

"What, like the time I caught you-"

"Yes." Naruto cut her off. "Exactly like that."

Tayuya huffed, always irritated at being cut off by Naruto before she could finish her sentence.

"How long are you going to be gone?"

"We'll be back in time for the tournament, hopefully before obaa-chan and the other Kage get here."

A little less than two weeks, then.

"That's...well, that's not as long as it could have been, I guess."

Naruto nodded.

"Yeah, we'll be back before you know it! Well, except Ero-sennin. You'll know when he's back. He has that pervy-ass laugh..."

Both of them attempted to mimic Jiraiya's most-often heard laugh, a quiet snicker amid mumbling to himself that was generally followed by a snot-rocket nosebleed. More often than not, it led to an assault on him by women, and had reportedly caused restraining orders put in place in sixty-three onsens across the Elemental Nations. That wasn't including parent companies for those onsens, though, which extended his actual ban across the entirety of Yugakure as well as the majority of Hi no Kuni, Taki no Kuni, Kusagakure, and even Shimo no Kuni.

That's what you got for being caught as a peeping tom.

Peeping Gama Sennin.

Peeping smut novelist.

"Well, you'd better be safe. You come back to me dead, and I'm gonna bring you back to life just so I can kill you myself."

"Yeah, yeah...don't worry, Tayuya-chan. Nothing can kill me, especially not a little training. I'm doing my best to get stronger, and it's not to become Hokage."

"Oh?"

"The Hokage has to look out for the entire village...but, at least for now, all I want to do is protect you." Naruto smiled.

"Asshole! Don't say cheesy shit like that!" Tayuya blushed, recoiling, but she couldn't get away before Naruto wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Can I get a kiss for good luck?" He asked, moving in before she could agree.

Not that she would have denied him, of course. Regardless of the fact that he was practically royalty, and there was probably a huge bank account lined up for him once he turned eighteen and could legally inherit the last wills and testaments of his parents, she knew she'd lucked out by ending up as Naruto's prisoner-turned-training partner-turned-girlfriend.

You weren't likely to get very many second chances in the world of shinobi. She'd gotten one, though, and she'd ride it out for all that it was worth. Besides, Naruto was _fun._ He didn't try to criticize her for her language, he had accepted her practically from the beginning, and he had genuinely trusted her to trust him. It was thanks to him that she'd become so much better as a person, as a kunoichi. Thanks to him, she had friends; admittedly, the use of that word was tenative, and she'd only really connected with Tenten in particular, but she couldn't deny that she wanted the chance to become closer with the rest of Naruto's close friends.

Rei and Kouga were great companions as well, though she'd long ago run out of things to tell them or teach them. Neither one showed much aptitude for Genjutsu, her area of expertise, but she'd helped them learn chakra control. Oboro was still somewhat of an enigma to her, even after almost a year; the two women just didn't sync very well with each other, but Tayuya knew that Naruto's grandmother would allow him to choose his own happiness.

As she melted further into the kiss, she knew that he'd already made his choice.


	24. Battle in Myobokuzan

**Two chapters in 24 hours? Two chapters in 24 hours. In light of his death, have a couple Muhammad Ali quotes:**

 **"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Rumble, young man, rumble."**

 **"If you dream of beating me, you'd best wake up and apologize."**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. Lord Bedhead: It was a continuation of the previous sentence...and yeah, I figure I should do a bit more relationship-writing for the pair, since I did bill this as Adventure/Romance; ergo, what better way to end the chapter?**

 **2\. Aaeru: Yeah, there's definitely a level of irony in apologizing for a "slow update" that came after 2 days rather than something like 2-3 months. Still, even though I doubted that I'd manage to keep up that blistering pace of a chapter or two being written in a day, I try to update quickly because the positive response to this fic was so incredibly strong, and I've only gotten 2 flame reviews out of 129.**

 **World-building is one of my favorite things to do, especially since there really aren't any rules in fanfic. I've drawn bits and pieces from other worlds of fiction, such as _Berserk_ and _Wheel of Time,_ and _Dune_ in the last chapter. I enjoy the idea of a sort of, "kaleidoscope universe," where you may be looking at one specific universe (in this case, _Naruto,_ ) but every time you look at it in fic there's something just a little bit different than there was before.**

 **As far as comedy: I've never been told that, but I've also never really tried to write for laughter, so thanks for that vote of confidence! And...yeah, Naruto's lot in life is to get fucked with. Tayuya is a great conduit for that, and anything I can do to further make him the butt of a joke is always a good idea.**

 **3\. BoB teh Snail: "Poor Itachi," is right. The man's got it pretty fucking rough.**

 **4\. Clipsus: Glad you've enjoyed the story so far! Like I said back in the Chapter 1 AN, canon is an absolute abomination of a timeline and I've always been horrified by that. And, given what we saw of his interaction with Inari, Naruto _can_ sometimes be rough with kids, but he's also very understanding because he never had it easy as a child either, so he's able to help them with their problems effectively.**

 **In regards to the political side, I can't help but enjoy it, and I'm mildly upset about the way canon portrays it. My mother was a communications professor, and I did debate, so politics has always been my bread and butter. That having been said, I'm not giving it a very faithful portrayal here, but that's because a military dictatorship isn't like a democratic republic like the US is.**

 **5\. Winter Arctica: Your guess at her identity is probably right, and likely to be as good as anyone's. Itachi, as I've said, is my favorite character in the whole _Naruto_ universe. He is the one man in the world who you absolutely do not fuck with. Considering that his abilities are relatively shadowed in canon, as he generally relies either on Genjutsu or his Sharingan (or both) we don't really get to see much of what he can do outside of that...which is what I'm interested in. I wanted to see the Itachi who bled his clan dry, not the Itachi who conserves himself waiting for the day when Sasuke finally kills him.**

 **My updates are consistent because the support for this story has inspired me to keep writing. I enjoy writing, but when very little support or appreciation is shown for the work I publicly post, I lose my willingness to write because it feels like a pointless endeavor.**

 **Now, the moment you've all been waiting for...**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"Welcome to Myobokuzan." Jiraiya said, Naruto's stomach whirling after having been reverse-summoned by Gamakichi. The small frog hopped away, intending to go find his father.

"This is the Toad summons' land?"

"That's right, kid." Jiraiya's grin was as fresh as ever, remembering how he'd managed to come here the first time.

Clueless, unprepared for any consequence, with hand seals so flawed that it had been a miracle the jutsu didn't blow up in his face, he'd used the _Kuchiyose no Jutsu_ without a contract. Rather than doing nothing, or calling forth an animal to make his contract with, it had warped him to Myobokuzan...and he hadn't left until he'd gained the right to summon them. Blood for blood, drink for drink, the young Gamabunta had matched him, and the two became fast friends.

"And...why did we come here?"

"Because Senjutsu training, as far as the Toads are capable of teaching it, is only able to be done on this mountain. There's a special oil that forms naturally here, and it evaporates quickly when it's taken too far from its source."

Great, lumbering steps told them that Gamabunta had arrived, the enormous amphibian holding his pipe between his lips.

"Jiraiya, Naruto, what was it that you came here for?"

"I'm going to try to teach Naruto some Senjutsu. There's not really a whole lot more that I, personally, can teach him besides this."

"Jiraiya...do you actually think he's ready?"

"What about if _I_ think I'm ready?" Naruto countered. "C'mon, boss toad, can't you at least gimme a chance?"

"I asked Jiraiya because we, ourselves, are often very poor judges of what it is that we are or are not capable of." Gamabunta responded in kind. "Jiraiya, however, has been through this training. It nearly killed him, twice. I would hope that his affection for you, as his latest student, wouldn't cloud your mind. Minato couldn't complete it, either."

"The training was...too much for my father?"

The real question: there was something Namikaze Minato couldn't do?

"The training emphasizes stillness, which is the opposite of how all animals act." Gamabunta said. "Your father's greatest asset was his overwhelming speed. And, if you were going to complete this training, you'll need to remain completely still with both your chakra limiter and the Slog Seal undone. Otherwise, you _will_ die, regardless of the Biju inside of you. So, since you asked: do you think you're ready?"

Human beings were preferred as Biju containers because they could be used as weapons. It was just as simple to seal them into a pot, or a scroll, or even a plot of land; if Naruto became a statue, the Kyuubi would remain sealed away.

Having made his point, Gamabunta made a one-handed Dog seal and vanished, likely teleporting to some other place on the mountain.

"I...but, could we just leave empty-handed? I have to get stronger I have to-"

"Naruto." Jiraiya said the boy's name a little harshly, interrupting him. "Are you sane right now?"

"What?"

"Yeah, 'what?' That's about right. Who do you think you sound like?"

"I, uh...oh, shit. I sound like Sasuke right now, huh?"

"And Orochimaru. And Danzo." Jiraiya said. "Power leads to corruption, and your problem is that you've honestly gained too much power too quickly. It was probably a mistake to train you using the Kage Bunshin, despite your affinity for them."

"But I got strong! Strong enough to fight in the Kiri rebellion!"

"But not strong enough to kill Yagura. Don't think I've forgotten that she moved to block the killing blow."

"Oh, and where the hell were _you_ when that happened? Cowering behind some fuckin' tree or another?" Tayuya's suicidal sacrifice was always going to be a high-risk trigger for Naruto, and all his former worry and anger came back tenfold to focus on Jiraiya.

Though Itachi's power had apparently saved him, Naruto had made his deal with a demon. He could still picture the scene perfectly, etched into his memory like almost nothing else was. Tayuya before him, her blood across his face and Yagura's hooked staff well inside of her chest. The surprise of both men, horrified understanding on Naruto's face. Their first kiss.

He hadn't thought twice about pulling off the seal, about allowing the Kyuubi to run rampant throughout his body. In the face of her death, and his _need_ for vengeance against her killer, he hadn't considered any other alternative.

He remembered the unearthly roar, sent into the heavens as a challenge.

 _Come to me if you want to die,_ that demonic scream had said, _and I will deliver your fate unto you._

Jiraiya was pressing his luck, whether he knew it or not.

"I thought you had something left." Jiraiya lied. "One last shadow clone, a jutsu to catch him off guard...I thought you had something. I thought you were baiting him."

"Don't you _dare_ bullshit me." Naruto's eyes were red in an instant, fangs pronounced and his nail-claws lengthened to the level that they could actually be considered dangerous. His ears, pointed as they were, completed the effect of giving Naruto a very canine appearance as his mouth hung slack.

"I'm not-"

"Liar!" Naruto yelled, not giving Jiraiya a chance to defend himself. "You didn't tell me about my parents. Orders or not, I had a right to know! I spent fifteen years as an orphan without knowing _anything_ about them, no thanks to your sorry ass! No child should have to find out their heritage from a fucking _library!_ Not only that, you lied about Kumo! You lied about this training! What the fuck have you _not_ lied to me about?"

"Naruto, get ahold of-" A fist laced with the Kyuubi's chakra hit the back of Jiraiya's head, a _Kage Bunshin_ having snuck up behind him.

"I'll get control of myself whenever I damn well please. And I really don't feel like it right now. You and I are going to fight, Jiraiya. I'm going to beat you into the ground. Feel free to die."

Jiraiya knew that the Kyuubi was influencing Naruto's thought process and his actions. He knew that the blond teen wasn't in his right state of mind.

He also knew he had a very real chance of dying here, with a half-cocked Jinchuriki locking him in as a target.

* * *

"-and so then he walks in on me and practically fuckin' screams bloody murder. Like, for shit's sake, we _sleep together._ Walking in on me bathing isn't such a big deal." Tayuya finished her story.

She, Tenten, and Sakura were all sitting around Sakura's hotel room. Sakura was on her bed, sitting up; Tayuya leaned against the wall, close by, and Tenten sat in a chair.

"Eh, Naruto-kun's always been a bit weird." Tenten said. "I don't know whether it's some weird sort of chivalry, or he's just that socially awkward. Doesn't it just make you want to protect him?"

"No." Sakura said. "It made me want to _hit_ him."

"And then he got taller than you." Tenten teased. "And little miss Billboard suddenly didn't have a target for her anger anymore, even though Naruto-kun would probably die before he'd try to hit you back."

"You know...that's true." Tayuya said. "It's been more than a year, but he and I haven't sparred once, like he's afraid of hitting me."

"He doesn't like fighting against women." Tenten sighed; Naruto had never sparred with her either, though Rock Lee had frequently been on the end of beat-downs against the blond. "He'll do it if it's a battlefield, and it can't be helped, but something in that brain of his..."

"That's a pretty bad aversion to have." Sakura said. "Women don't make up a majority of any country's ninja ranks, but it's always somewhere between a third and half. Tsunade-sama says that it's because, even though men and women have the same physical capabilities, it's much easier for men to reach extremes more quickly...so a lot of girls give up."

"Spare us the sexism speech. Any man who thinks he's better than me, I'll kill him. Any woman who thinks she's better than me, I'll kill her." Tayuya said. "If someone doesn't think they're cut out to be a ninja, well, they shouldn't be a ninja. It just happens that a lot more girls want to fantasize about raising a family with the boy of their dreams than they care about serving their village."

"Fair point. Besides, why not just let the men all kill each other? Then the good ones are left, and they've weeded out the ones who didn't need to make it. That's how you pick out who you marry, huh?"

"That's...a little too pragmatic for me, Tenten." Sakura said.

"Well, yeah, because you've been trying to get into Sasuke's pants since you were seven years old. It doesn't matter to you, because it doesn't _need_ to matter to you. Uchiha Sasuke is the husband equivalent to looking for a house and inheriting a mansion."

"Oh, like Neji isn't!"

"Sakura, I don't know what ideas you might have in your head, but I don't really have an interest in Neji-kun. He respects my strength as a kunoichi and a teammate, and I respect him as one of my best friends. He and Lee are like my brothers. Besides, in all likelihood, clan politics will make Neji and Hinata get engaged to each other."

"What! But they're cousins!"

"Yes, and their fathers were identical twins, which makes them genetic half-siblings." Tenten shook her head, disgusted at the notion. "But as long as that goddamn seal is on his forehead, he's at the clan elders' mercy under pain of death. It would also put him in a position to become the clan head instead of Hinata or her sister, rather than making their father just run through women until he finally has a son. And, after their marriage is finalized, they'll remove the Aiganchou seal from him because the clan head can't belong to the Branch House."

"Would...would Neji really go that far?"

"He's a ninja." Tayuya said. While she'd only met Neji once, she'd been briefed about him prior to the Sound Four's failed mission to bring Sasuke to Orochimaru. "His loyalties are supposed to be to his village and to his clan...though, from all I know about the Hyuuga, they prefer those loyalties to be reversed in priority. Especially after the Uchiha Massacre."

"Anyway...what guy _do_ you have your eye on, then?" Sakura asked.

"Tayuya's never gonna give him up, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't want Naruto for myself. Other than him...I don't know? What does Kakashi look like under his mask?"

"God only knows. So, Naruto is on the list, no matter how much I don't understand that. Keep going?"

"Uh..." Tenten paused. "I didn't really pay much attention to any of the boys in my graduating class at the academy, I was always busy training with my weapons. So, of your class- wait, I don't really know any of them very well either. I, uh, um..."

"Well, fuck. An entire world to pick from, and the _one_ guy she wants is my boyfriend." Tayuya shook her head. "You sure know how to pick 'em. Besides, didn't you and Naruto grow up together? Fuck, you even call him 'onii-chan!' Oh, god, it's not that there's nobody, you're just gross!"

"Fuck off." Tenten gave a few short sweeping gestures with her hand. "I do that to mess with him. Besides, didn't he get stuck playing your nurse, on the Hokage's orders? Do you have a doctor kink, Tayuya? Or...does he just take care of everything for you before you can think about it, do you wish there was an S-and-M element to it? Are you degenerate enough to call him 'daddy?'"

"Literally what. The. Fuck." Tayuya said. "Oh, god, look, you broke Sakura."

The pink-haired medic had slumped over, blood leaking from her nose.

"Well, I guess _she's_ the degenerate one." Tenten laughed, and Tayuya joined in shortly.

"How do you think ol' piss-for-brains is doing?"

"Oh, I'm sure he's fine. You know Naruto, don't you? He's never doing too badly."

* * *

The tree that Naruto broke in half, as Jiraiya slammed him against it, impaled him in three places and gave him splinters across his back. Jiraiya was forced to break away when two _Kage Bunshin_ attacked him from the side, and Naruto was completely healed by the time they'd been dispelled.

"Futon: Fujin no Tsubasa!" Naruto cried, and his opponent barely dodged the sweeping pincer attack.

The Wings of the Wind God was a two-stage Ninjutsu, however, and Jiraiya couldn't avoid the up-then-down wind tunnel that was strong enough to lift him into its cyclonic vortex before shooting him down into the earth like a shot from a cannon.

"Fuin: Dai Kyuu Akuma no Tengoku-Hakai Hoko!" The Ninth Demon's Heaven-Breaking Roar was another Uzumaki Kinjutsu, and Naruto threw the seal in Jiraiya's general direction.

Naruto was laughing as a shuriken cut the paper in two, as he'd activated it remotely, and a cacophonous howl forced Jiraiya to his knees as blood started to leak from his ears. It made sense to Naruto that Jiraiya might actually be using some amount of Senjutsu in this fight; in the notes written for the technique, it had been stated that any ninja with the seal's full force directed at them should collapse from ear and brain damage.

However, Jiraiya had said something about it strengthening the body, so the effects of the seal had been moderately muted. His equilibrium was still off-kilter, though, and Naruto took advantage of that to punch Jiraiya in the face. Before the Sannin could get away, he grabbed ahold of the larger man's hands and pulling back to bring his knee into contact with Jiraiya's throat.

With all the savagery of the beast he was becoming, Naruto slammed his forehead into Jiraiya's. Once, twice, three times, four times. Ten times. Twenty times. Fifty times. He lost count of how long he'd been slamming his head into Jiraiya's, but it had stopped seeming to have an effect a long time ago.

Blood leaked from every orifice in Jiraiya's body, and some cuts along his arms and back, but the Sannin was still alive...somehow.

Naruto walked away, his feet carrying him without a thought for direction. Eventually, he made his way to a small clearing filled with several black statues, and a fountain-fed pond they formed a theater around.

Finally, worn, his legs gave out beneath him and he fell head-first into the oily pond. With it came a sensation of one-ness, as though he were connected to everything in the vicinity; his body lost its weariness, and Naruto got out before he completely soaked himself in it. Panic began to set in as he started losing the ability to move, his legs slowly turning to stone just like the many statues surrounding him.

Sluggishly, he moved his hands, and thanked god that the _Kage Bunshin no Jutsu_ only required one seal.

Willing into existence all the clones he could, in order to dispel the nature energy he'd unwittingly absorbed, the feeling returned to his shins and feet as he was surrounded by images of himself that were and were not true.

Basic clones were intangible, an illusion. Elemental clones were only capable of being made by a master of Doton or Suiton, as _Ka-Bunshin, Rai-Bunshin,_ and _Fu-Bunshin_ were impossible to create; a drawback of dealing with such ephemeral elements. _Kage Bunshin_ were strong enough to take one serious hit before dispelling. Senjutsu-created clones, however, were several times more durable. Especially when the caster had some of the densest, most potent chakra that could be made available to him.

"All of you." Naruto directed. "Learn how to access natural energy by diminishing the amount of oil used over time. Hopefully, once we've run through enough attempts, we'll manage to do it without having to use the oil. After that...maybe, after that, I can learn how to control the Kyuubi."

Naruto sat down on the grass, his back to the cliff wall that towered above him. Maybe it would do him some good to explore, and learn more about the Toads whose contract he held...who knew, maybe they'd be willing or able to teach him things that Jiraiya wouldn't or couldn't.

Standing up again, Naruto shaped Futon chakra into blades at his feet, stabbing them into the cliff face and beginning to climb.

Deep within his mind, the Kyuubi's laughter ricocheted throughout the walls of its cage. Blood for blood, light from light, and all the gifts from men and demons and the dead gods that Zen no Kurama had never known...whether or not its freedom would be granted, it had to admit, it had an interesting host. That was enough to pacify the Kyuubi, at least for now.

As his father had said, a long time ago, the stars were right.


	25. More Certain than Death or Taxes

**Another chapter to cut your teeth on. I was going to leave some witty remark here, but I forgot what it was...oops. I'll probably remember much later, and then forget again.**

 **Also, if I wrote an omake every now and then, how would you all take it? I've considered them, and they'd be a bonus to the chapter length rather than a filler used to reach the mark, but if you would all just rather that I focus on the story, I'll go with that instead.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. Generation Zero: Yeah. Like I've said before, I appreciate a moral scale in shades of shade and lighting, not a dark or overly positive Naruto. Sometimes, his decisions make rational sense; sometimes, they don't. That's what it means to be human. As for Sage Mode, Naruto hasn't gotten it quite yet...but I have an idea that's probably stupid, and you may understand it once you've read this chapter.**

 **2\. SSJ3 Kyuubi Gohan: I thought about it. Hell, I've thought about doing several threesome pairings. I'm trying to keep it a running gag in this fic that just about any semi-plot-important woman could conceivably want to get into Naruto's pants, and Tayuya's mild jealousy over it. As far as Naru/Tayu/Ten, though, where this fic is concerned...I'm gonna have to go with a, "sorry, no dice." In the future? Who knows. As a monogamous person, though, I just don't really _get_ polyamory. More power to those who practice it, but to me it's the mental equivalent of a line of question marks running across my eyelids like that shitty Windows 98 screensaver.**

 **3\. Guest: Eh, call it, "creative liberties." I figure, as much as I've fucked with canon here, something like character height is a little weird to question...but, hey, do as you will. Shoot, you pay more attention to the fic than I do, I forgot that I wrote that line. Keep in mind, though, this Naruto is two years older than canon, so he's 16 instead of 14; Naruto's at his Shippuden height right now, while Sasuke hasn't grown as much since male puberty hits hardest in the mid-late teens. Hell, I was 4'10" as a sophomore in high school, and junior year I shot to 5'7" and suddenly I was taller than all the girls in the school who weren't on the volleyball team. Hell, I _was_ taller than one of them.**

 **Shit's fucked, my dude.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"Oh, god damn it..." Jiraiya groaned. "Uzumaki and their Fuinjutsu. I should have known that woman would teach him something."

The last thing he remembered, he'd been unable to pacify Naruto and been forced to fight his student in relative seriousness. Dried blood coated various places across his body, but Jiraiya didn't let it get to him too much; the real problem would be finding Naruto. The blond didn't know the sequence to reverse-summon his way back to Suna, where they'd left from. That meant he was still somewhere on the mountain, and if Jiraiya was in luck then he'd be talking with the toads. Maybe even training.

That was the problem with power. Once you had it, you would use it, and you always wanted more. Naruto's growth had been highly accelerated due to the use of the Kage Bunshin, and the fast turnaround had left him feeling hungry for more power rather than sating his desire to learn. Jiraiya had run out of things to teach him, save for the much more advanced Fuinjutsu techniques...but based on the final display before Jiraiya's mind blanked, Oboro had taught him plenty in that regard.

Sealing was a very free-form art anyway, mostly inherent to the user's interpretation. One explosive seal could be as small as a grain of rice, or as large as a house, and there was no telling which one would be more powerful. The intricacies of calligraphy, and the penmanship required, gave each Fuinjutsu master a specific style of sealing. Jiraiya's handwriting was terrible, meaning that his seals had to be larger than normal in order to correct all the mistakes that he'd make. All through his life, it was something that had irritated him, particularly when Minato's seals were so neat and lacking in any sort of error.

Naruto's penmanship was horrific, even worse than Jiraiya's, and yet he just seemed to _understand_ Fuinjutsu. Whether that was his Uzumaki blood, or whatever sidelined training he'd done with his grandmother, it made Jiraiya fume. He'd studied the art for almost four decades, only to be surpassed by two of his students, and their son, in a lifespan that barely exceeded his own. In raw study, Minato and Kushina had learned Fuinjutsu from him for six years apiece, and Naruto was barely into his second year.

Was that just Naruto's fate, to exceed the limits others tried to place upon him?

Jiraiya shook the thought from his head, finally moving from the hole his body had made in the ground. Naruto had really managed to do a number on him, even with overdone Senjutsu having hardened his body nearly to the point of becoming a statue. Naruto's savagery, only fueled further by the incarnation of hatred that was the Kyuubi no Kitsune, had still nearly killed him.

Staggering away from the relatively small, former battlefield, Jiraiya resolved to find Naruto and return to Suna as quickly as possible. When Tsunade arrived, he would inform her that the training trip was over, and to integrate Naruto back into Konoha's regular forces.

There was nothing more that Jiraiya could do; if Naruto was so embedded in hatred for him, then it would be nearly impossible to dissuade him from that.

Where had he gone wrong?

* * *

"Most of the Toads have affinities for Suiton and Katon techniques." One of the two Toad Elders, Fukasaku, said to Naruto. "I happen to have a Futon nature, myself. We can also teach ya how to use Aburaton, in combination with Futon and Katon techniques."

Naruto grinned; the scale of destruction for that sort of joint attack, and the chakra it would take, was something right up his alley. With shadow clones, the task would be even easier. Oil and wind were both accelerants for fire, and to combine all three was to invite absolute devastation into the battlefield.

Then, a thought struck Naruto; while Jiraiya had mentioned that the oil used for Senjutsu training evaporated quickly when taken outside of Myobokuzan, it was truthfully a more potent weapon on its own. The ability to overload someone's tenketsu, effectively a reverse of the Hyuuga's Jyuken techniques, was more lethal than a firestorm that hid the enemy and could deceive the caster into believing their enemy was dead.

That was a lesson that Yagura had taught him. He wouldn't make the same mistake twice. He was Tayuya's rock, and she was his cause. Without him, she was lost, and without her, he had nothing.

"Is it possible to use the Senjutsu oil in those techniques?"

Fukasaku looked puzzled.

"Yes, I suppose. It'd need a few different hand seals, but why? To my knowledge, nobody's ever tried to do that."

"Are you...are you serious?"

"Yes. In all my eight hundred years, nobody's ever thought to use the Senjutsu oil in any Aburaton techniques."

"Why?" Naruto didn't question why the Elder had mentioned his age. Old people did strange things.

"Well, there's a certain level of veneration we give to the statues surrounding that pool." Fukasaku explained. "Each one's a human or toad who failed to master Senjutsu training. Did that boy, Jiraiya, ever tell ya the lethality rate of the training?"

"He said that only about a third of the people who tried were able to survive."

"That number is actually closer to one out of every ten. Jiraiya is the seventh human to be given the title of Gama Sennin...you saw the number of statues there."

Another thing Jiraiya had lied about.

"Yeah."

"I won't stop you from learning how to use it, but...it would do you well to have respect for those who came before you."

"Not many of them are actually worthy of my respect." Naruto countered. "Tsunade hides her age behind Genjutsu because she doesn't think that a middle-aged woman is a proper image for a leader. Jiraiya is a compulsive liar and he hasn't really given me much reason to trust him beyond some bullshit loyalty to me due to the fact that my parents were his students. The Sandaime, much as I appreciate all he tried to do for me, really fucked me over with that law he passed. Turned me into the village pariah, and under pain of death, nobody was allowed to tell me why. I can count on one hand the number of older ninja who I respect."

Itachi, Zabuza, Mei, Yugito and Kirabi.

Kakashi was working his way up the ladder, but that would have to wait until Naruto's official return to Konoha so that the Copycat Ninja could fulfill the promise he'd made. Itachi's addition was fairly recent, with Naruto's realization of his motives during the battle in Kumo. Some younger ninja had Naruto's respect as well. Tenten, Neji, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Lee, Samui, Gaara, and Haku were all on that list. If Naruto were to sit down and think about it, there were likely to be a few more names to write down, but he couldn't be bothered to try at the moment.

There were more important things to do.

"I'm sorry ya feel that way. Still...is there really anything I can do fer ya? I can only really offer a couple Ninjutsu, and a little help with Senjutsu training. You and your clones'll probably manage to get it down pat without me."

"Teach me history." Naruto said. "World history. The Elemental Nations, the Warring Clans era, the time between the Rikudo Sennin and the Warring Clans era. Tell me about the times before the Rikudo Sennin, before the gods died. As much as you know."

"That would take too long." Fukasaku said. "I'm not averse to teaching ya, but ya said you're on a time limit, ain't that right?"

"Yeah. It'll just have to wait until later. For now...I guess we can stick to those oil-based techniques, and whatever else you can teach me."

The two shook hands on it, making a deal.

"Now, boy, it's time to take you to the Lord of the Toads. He's been expecting you."

* * *

"Oboro." Tayuya said.

The twins were running around in the streets below, playing with some of Suna's native children their own age. Oboro watched them loosely, as though she was a mother who trusted her children to play nicely.

"Tayuya. What is it?" There was no harshness in her voice. "This is rare for you. You normally just keep to yourself, or with Naruto."

"I...wanted to talk."

"About?"

"You know what about!" Tayuya blushed. "About Naruto."

"Are you worried?"

"No, it's...oh, god, never mind." She didn't know what to say to the woman's blunt answers, words that went nowhere.

Tayuya wheeled around and prepared to leave the room, but Oboro's voice stopped her.

"Tayuya, please. Tell me."

The younger kunoichi sighed, turning back to face Oboro.

"Well, the way things are going...I know we're young, and it's not likely to happen for a few more years, but...I wanted to ask for your blessing."

"Direct. I like that about you, Tayuya. While you're crude and foul-mouthed to him, you cling to Naruto like a security blanket. As callous as he is to others, the care he takes in his approach to you is proof of how he feels. I've seen you train your conjunction techniques with Rei and Kouga, and you complement each other well. The only question I have left to ask is whether or not you're certain."

"I am." Tayuya said, unflinching as she looked at the woman who would be her grandmother-in-law. "I've never been more certain about anything."

"Then of course you have my blessing, dear. Still...I think Naruto will want to ask you, though, not the other way around. Are you really content to wait for that?"

"Like I said, it's probably not going to happen for a few more years. That doesn't bother me."

"Even after what happened in Kirigakure?"

Tayuya frowned.

"I...I think so. That was an act of desperation. I was willing to die rather than live in a world without him. I still am. But now...even with as little training as I've gotten in controlling the Sanbi, we're both much stronger now than we were then. It won't ever come to that again."

"Don't say that." Oboro said. "No matter how strong you are, there is always, always someone stronger or more cunning. Josuke was the head of our clan, the strongest Uzumaki of us all, and he was stabbed in the back by that conniving vermin Danzo."

It was clear that, though she'd tried to move on, she was still haunted at the fact that she was alone in a world without her husband.

"I'm sorry."

"No, it's alright. You wouldn't understand. I hope that you never do."

"Me too."

Tayuya left the room, but she felt closer to Oboro than she had minutes ago. Wishing that Naruto would come back soon, she walked further down the halls of the Kazekage mansion; Gaara had been insistent that they stay in his family's home.

Knocking at the single door on the left side of the hall, she heard a muffled, "Come in."

Temari was sitting at a desk, though she'd turned to see who was approaching her.

"Ah...hey."

"Hey, yourself."

This was the first time both kunoichi had been alone in a room together, and only the second time they'd met since their battle near the edge of Hi no Kuni. There was no tension between them, as orders were orders and the fight was long over...but the two both felt awkward.

"So, what are you doing?" Tayuya pulled over a chair and sat just far enough away from Temari that she wouldn't be able to see whatever the blonde was writing.

"Filing taxes. Can you believe it? My brother is the Kazekage, and I'm _filing a tax return._ This is ridiculous."

"I thought only the civilians did that, though?" Tayuya asked.

"Not here. Suna's been poor, or wracked by famine, for almost my entire life. We're one of the five Great Nations, but when the Daimyo started to outsource missions...we were sent into poverty, and Konoha began to prosper again. That was just after I was born, and Konoha was recovering from the Kyuubi attack. Once they were back on their feet, though, the mission overflow to Konoha didn't _stop._ They kept taking more and more from us, until we had almost nothing. So everyone files taxes, unless you want to take an even bigger cut on your paycheck after you complete a mission. Hell, if you do that, sometimes Suna might even end up owing _you_ money. Isn't that crazy?"

"Yeah." Tayuya admitted.

Of all the things she thought she'd talk about, finance absolutely wasn't one of them.

"Is there anything else you want to talk about?" Temari asked. "I've got all day, really...and, hell, I could stand to spend it with you. Nothing better to do, you know?"

"Hmm...well, fuck. I don't really know what, 'normal girls,' talk about when they hang out. Boys? Fashion? I'm not much for either, I've got the only one I need and I don't give a rat's ass about the second."

"He means that much to you?"

"Yeah. It didn't really start to happen until after...you know..."

She could still feel the burning sensation in her memories, the knowledge that wind shouldn't be touching her broken ribs.

"We should have done more for him. We could have crushed them in a full-blown battle...Kankuro and I, we owe Naruto almost everything we have. After he beat Gaara, when the invasion of Konoha failed, something changed. Gaara wasn't unstable anymore, he didn't keep trying to murder people in cold blood. We stopped being afraid of passing our own little brother in the hallway. He gave Gaara back to us...we should never have let it come to the point it did."

"What's done is done." Tayuya said. "My only issue with it is the part where that piss-brained fucker gave up."

"Yeah...anyway, though, boys. Boys aren't really my strong suit."

"Girls?"

"Not really my strong suit either. Wouldn't mind, though."

"Please don't tell me you're a weasel-fucker. I remember that bullshit summoning, that's the shit that should have killed me."

"God, no!" Temari's expression was one of horror. "No, I just, well...being the daughter of one Kazekage, and the sister of another, doesn't land you many dates. The village is warming up to Gaara now, but plenty of people remember how he acted as little as a year and a half ago. Anyone who'd be willing to ask me out is terrified of him."

"Well, I mean...is it because he's overprotective?"

"Maybe. He's trying to make up for the fact that he tormented us for half of his life, but both Kankuro and I already forgave him...he's really become a big sweetheart. I don't know how many times you've heard this, but if you didn't have that guy nailed down to the floorboards-"

"Holy _fuck,_ what is it with every goddamn woman in the world and her absolute _need_ to get with my boyfriend?"

Sakura was her only true friend. Only Sakura could be trusted not to lust after Naruto.

Sakura was pure. Sakura was flat. Sakura was justice. Sakura was...Naruto's former crush, which meant that Tayuya couldn't really trust the pink-haired kunoichi after all.

In the game of husbands, you won or you settled for an average-looking man. Or you cut your losses and said that men weren't worth the effort. Or you were a lesbian to begin with.

Tayuya wanted to win.

"Hey, I didn't say that!" Temari laughed. "I'm just grateful to him. Doesn't his little sister have some code or something, debt and repayment? Well, Gaara may owe him the most, but I still feel more indebted to him than I'll ever be able to repay."

"So your answer is to fuck your way out of debt? Kinky."

"I...what? No, I, um, I-" Temari sputtered, and Tayuya laughed at the deep blush across Temari's face.

"Relax, Goldilocks, I'm just teasing. Besides, there's got to be _someone_ you're looking at. If you go after them first, they're gonna be hard-pressed to say no."

"But that's not proper!" Temari exclaimed. "I want to be romanced, not the one doing the courting!"

"Eat your wheaties and grow up." Tayuya grinned. "Besides, who is it? Or is it multiple people? Ooh, make yourself a harem! The princess of the desert, surrounded by her concubines of both sexes! Being fed grapes as one topless servant shades you with a big leaf, and another uses Futon jutsu to keep you cool! Women with nothing but strips of cloth to cover them dancing vicariously for your enjoyment! Being taken back to your chambers on a litter before the nightly orgy begins!"

For someone who'd tried to kill her, and who she'd tried to kill, Tayuya was certainly having fun teasing Temari.

"It's nobody! Just a boy who works at a restaurant I go to on the weekends."

"Oh my god, a civilian?" Tayuya giggled.

She didn't know exactly why she was so gung-ho about this, all of a sudden, but she liked it. It was a much more Naruto-esque thing to do than she was used to...she was worried for a moment; maybe his stupidity was contagious, too.

Putting those thoughts aside, she continued to tease Temari throughout the day after making her promise that they'd go out to the restaurant together the next time she went.


	26. Reconciliation and Aquisition

**Here we _go,_ motherfuckers. Time for a new chapter!**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. Aaeru: Jiraiya definitely pulled his punches. Canonically, the only time Jiraiya got whooped by Naruto is when he loosened the _Shiki Fuin_ and then had to create a seal specifically to fix his fuck-up. That having been said, I've _also_ made Itachi stronger than he was in canon (or plan to, at any rate,) so you're right on both counts.**

 **Naruto's got a bit of a lingering problem from his fight with Yagura, which will be explained a little later in this chapter. My basic explanation: Naruto's grown too strong, too fast, with the aid of _Kage Bunshin_ on the training trip rather than specifically trying to master the _Rasenshuriken._ He's grown accustomed to gaining strength quickly, even though he previously worked as hard as anyone else to get where he had been beforehand. He's gotten spoiled, and the problem with people who're spoiled is that they don't like it when they stop getting that special treatment. It's not really a, "lust for power," thing, more just an, "I don't feel like I'm at my peak, why aren't I going at the rate I used to?"**

 **Like you're walking up a hill, and suddenly there's a huge incline in the hill's steepness, except this way you can't see that incline. All you can do is feel the difficulty of the hike increase.**

 **2\. Clipsus: I addressed the issue of the quick escalation in this chapter; hopefully, it satisfies you. Thanks for the compliment on the scene itself, though!**

 **Got two votes for an omake, so...next chapter gets one. Hope you're all ready for whatever I come up with!**

 **Also, OneLunchMan, where did you go?**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"I still don't know what you're trying to do here." Temari said. "This isn't going to do anything but embarrass me. Probably him, too. God only knows that's the last thing I need."

"Fuckin' shit, you worry too much. Relax, Goldilocks. If any of Naruto's luck rubbed off on either of us, everything's gonna go fine. Hell, even if that perverted birdshit-sensei showed up out of nowhere, he wouldn't manage to fuck this up for you."

"Oh, so no matter what, I'm responsible when it blows up in my face?"

"You smell the fire and figure out whether you want to kill me, or him, or yourself."

They were at the restaurant Temari had mentioned, the Shining Lotus. Low-lit, with high booths and tables, it was a ninja's comfort zone for eating; it was impossible to be attacked except through the establishment's infrequent windows, the high-backed chairs and booth seats able to break any technique or weapon used in an attempt to begin a fight.

"Can I take your order?" A girl came up to them. "My name is Mari. Saizo and I will be serving you today."

"Uh, yeah, hold on..." Tayuya said, skimming the menu.

"I'll have my usual." Temari said.

"I guess I'll have the...geez, what's 'flank of Shai-Hulud,' and why is it that expensive?"

"Tayuya, did nobody ever tell you about the Sabaku Kodo-Ryu?" Temari asked.

"No. I was definitely never taught about that. I'll go with the chicken kebabs, though."

Desert Tunnel Dragons? That sounded relatively menacing. The only time she'd heard of it was when Naruto had tried, and failed, to argue Temari to his side of an argument.

As their waitress walked off, Temari began to speak again.

"Shai-Hulud is an old, old name for them. Their teeth are razor-sharp, and our Kenjutsu masters use blades made from them. They're notoriously difficult to kill, though...no jutsu we've ever used has managed to hurt one, and the only thing we've found that _can_ is water. Pure water is poisonous to them, and it takes far more to do the job than we're comfortable with using. They live far enough out in the desert that you'd have to hunt for days, maybe even weeks, to find one."

"That's bizarre."

"Says a woman whose corpse will spawn a demon."

"Not if I never die." Tayuya laughed at her own words. "Feels like I've gotten pretty good at managing that, too. No matter how fucked my body seems, I keep on just...not fuckin' dying."

"That's not a bad thing."

They were interrupted again a few minutes later, when their food was brought out. Their waitress, Mari, and a boy who Tayuya assumed to be Saizo, carried the plates.

Tayuya's kebabs were laid atop a bed of fried rice with mixed vegetables. Temari had ordered a two-plate meal of bacon-wrapped stuffed jalapeños, rice and beans, with a naked burrito bowl in the second plate. Tayuya thought it was a bit of a flimsy excuse to watch the waiter's muscular arms move, but she sympathized; Naruto, tired and worn from his training, was always a _lovely_ sight to see.

Tayuya wasn't much of a romantic, but there was just something enticing about the masculinity of a working man...especially when you had feelings for him. Looking at how Temari was now, going beyond politeness and yet practically preying on his body with her eyes, Tayuya knew that her former enemy had developed a full-blown crush.

Not that it was her place to meddle, but she would. As her own boyfriend would say, "Pranks are the most fun when everyone walks away smiling."

This wouldn't be a prank, but hopefully she could leave Temari and Saizo with all three of them wearing smiles.

* * *

"Fukasaku-sama, have you seen...Naruto! There you are!"

It had been a week since they'd separated, and Jiraiya had finally found his wayward student. Naruto sat on the ground, with Fukasaku in front of him, and Jiraiya got the sense that he'd interrupted something comparable to a tutoring session.

"Hello, Jiraiya. It's been a little while."

The last time they'd met was during the Kyuubi attack.

"Hey, Ero-sennin. I, uh...well, shit. I'm sorry." Naruto said.

"I'd tell you it's alright, kid, but it's really not. Still, I'm willing to move past it. Now, since I've finally got you here, I'd like to ask you something: are you willing to just sit down and talk with me? No lies, no holds barred. I know I've kept some secrets from you, and I know that I shouldn't have, but...well, I guess it's because the world's just taken a wrong approach to you."

"No more lies?"

"I wouldn't call all of them lies...more like I just didn't always reveal the truth. I promise, though."

"Alright."

"Naruto, boy, call for me again when you two are done. We'll pick up where we left off." Fukasaku said before vanishing by way of a _shunshin._

"So, what has that old geezer been teaching you?"

"History, mostly." Naruto said. "A few jutsu, but mainly history, and some tactics using my shadow clones as soldiers. Did you know that, even though four-man squads are the norm because a unit that small can generally avoid detection by non-sensors, a five-man squad allows for better team-building? If two of your teammates are a healer or a sensor, that only leaves two positions open for front-line fighters, which will probably just be one if you have a trap-master or support fighter...but a fifth teammate allows for a much more offensive presence on the battlefield."

Jiraiya had never thought about that, but it made sense. If you had a medic, they normally wouldn't fight, and sensors generally had very low stamina. So, if you had a secondary fighter like a Suna puppeteer or a Genjutsu specialist, that meant the bulk of the fighting would actually be done by one person. The idea that teamwork might overcome stronger, disorganized foes, was something of a Konoha staple. However, during war, it would be much more helpful to alleviate the burden of fighting alone.

That having been said, an additional secondary fighter or medic could be just as valuable. It would all be dependent on how the squad commander preferred going about their missions, and it didn't surprise Jiraiya at all that Naruto would choose combat.

"Your turn to ask a question." Jiraiya said.

"Why do you keep me in the dark on a lot of things? I mean...my parents, the Senjutsu training mortality rate, the lie about why you didn't step in against Yagura? I mean, if you don't have much left to teach me, that's one thing. Still, the deception bothers me."

"How far do you want me to go? There's a lot to say, and very little of it is good."

"Tell me everything."

"Well...alright. I did say, 'no holds barred,' after all." Jiraiya prepared himself. "As you know, your status as a Jinchuriki makes you an incredibly powerful shinobi, and essentially mandates that we do everything in our power to keep you loyal to us. If that meant holding a proverbial carrot in front of your face, then we'd do it. Do you really think it was an accident that you graduated, in the way you did? It wasn't. My sensei already knew that Mizuki was a traitor, and a minor Genjutsu was more than enough to put the idea in his head. Your other teacher, Iruka, was kept in the dark for obvious reasons. His interference might have caused his death, were it not for your loyalty to him."

That much was true. Naruto remembered the sheer size of the hole in Iruka's torso that night, a massive shuriken lodged inside.

"Even after you were found guilty of those murders, what happened to you? Nothing, because even a crazed Jinchuriki can be made compliant, and you were too important to be allowed to die. My sensei was a kind man, but he was also ruthless and political. Excluding the three years that Minato took over, Sarutobi Hiruzen served as the Hokage for almost sixty years. That takes a man who's willing to do whatever might be necessary for the good of the village. Tsunade can be that way, too, when she wants. Why do you think Tayuya is with us on this trip? Why do you think Tsunade chose you to be her guardian in Konoha?

"It's because she wanted one of Orochimaru's agents made loyal to Konoha, and if you developed a strong bond with her, then your own loyalty to the village would be reinforced. Your grandmother, and those children, complicated things...but Tsunade isn't heartless, she would never order their deaths to reaffirm that Konoha is the only family you need. If all goes well, then we'll be able to integrate them into our own forces, and having seen what those kids can do..." Jiraiya trailed off.

Naruto was mildly upset at the manipulation, but he understood the reasons; a loose cannon would have to be tied down, or eliminated. Konoha's higher-ups wouldn't do more work than they absolutely had to, hence the reason why nukenin like Orochimaru and Itachi were never gone after.

Naruto hated politics.

"Does Tsunade obaa-chan really think I might turn on her? Because when you say, 'loyal to Konoha,' it sounds like you really mean, 'loyal to Tsunade.'"

"Alright. Crash-course, Konohagakure political science one-oh-one...Tsunade-hime is relatively unpopular with the village. On the international stage, she's seen as commendable, a veteran of two wars and generally viewed as the most powerful kunoichi in the world, to say nothing of her doctoral skills or the advancements she made in medical science. However, she was only in the village once in the last...twenty-something years? We were thirty-seven when the Kyuubi attack happened, we're fifty-two now, she was-"

"Please get back on track." Naruto reminded him, something of a rarity for the blond.

"Oh, alright. Anyway, she took an extended leave of absence, and left again after the Kyuubi attack, and the next time she came back was when you practically dragged her here by her collar. While most of the civilians and merchants couldn't really give less of a rat's ass who's in charge as long as they keep getting dealt fair, there's a decent portion of the shinobi in Konoha who aren't too fond of her. Danzo is her most outspoken political opponent, though he'd never be so brazen as to openly challenge her. There were a lot of ninja who liked the way that my sensei, and Minato, ran things...and Tsunade doesn't do a very comparable job, drinking her life away while she signs paperwork and brash until the chips are down. Unless she absolutely can't afford to budge, it's relatively easy to make her accede to requests. You and I have it particularly easy, in that regard."

That explained why he'd always get off with little more than a slap on the wrist for his indescretions and impoliteness, even more than the fact that Tsunade was one-quarter Uzumaki in her blood.

"Who, in particular, is so set against her?"

"Well, for starters, there's the Sarutobi clan head, Azuma. He's the one who taught your generation's Yamanaka-Nara-Akimichi trio. His fiancee, Kurenai, is bound to be on his side. Your sensei is a bit more verbal about it than both of them, though."

His graduating generation, all taught by anti-Tsunade ninja.

"Well, in a way, isn't that a good thing?" Naruto asked. "Loyalty should go to the village, not the Hokage in particular. If I was told to make a choice between preventing Tsunade's death, and saving all of Konoha, she'd kill herself so that I wouldn't have to choose. That's what the Sandaime did for you, too, wasn't it?"

That was an old wound, at this point, but the perceptiveness Naruto had displayed with that barb was enough to make it painful.

"Yeah." Jiraiya nodded. "Anything else you want to ask?"

Naruto tilted his head back, thinking for a moment, before looking at Jiraiya again and shaking his head.

"No, I'm all good. Your turn again, I guess."

"This isn't really going to be questioning, this is going to be something of an amateur psychoanalysis. You," Jiraiya pointed at Naruto, "are power-hungry, and you feel entitled to that power now that you know your genetic pedigree as well as the fact that the Akatsuki are hunting you. Whenever you feel like you're not getting what you want, you get frustrated, and you vent by attacking the person who you think is shafting you...which has been me. You recover relatively quickly enough that we've been having a civil conversation, and you seem to respect me, even if you don't really like me. That, or you think I'm holding out on you for selfish reasons and you think the only rational answers are to force me to teach you or to beat me to death so that you don't have to deal with my supposed selfishness.

"There's also the matter of your hair-trigger anger, like you have a fetish for bloodshed when certain topics are brought up. A prime example is that whenever Tayuya's near-death gets brought up, you immediately get defensive because you think someone else is to blame, or you think they're blaming you."

Naruto frowned at that.

"I am to blame, though. It's my fault it happened." Naruto said. "If I'd been smarter, then she wouldn't have needed to step in against Yagura."

"Then why did you fly off the handle like that, and fight me?"

"Just because you know the truth doesn't mean you want to face it."

That sentence struck a chord with Jiraiya; for a boy who routinely made all kinds of bone-headed mistakes, the level of insight he sometimes displayed was frightening.

"And the real reason?"

Naruto huffed, but his unwillingness to speak wouldn't prevent him from doing so.

"I overdrew from the Kyuubi's chakra during that fight, after Tayuya got hit. You've noticed my ears and my nails and all, right? Hell, I grew a couple inches after it happened."

"I noticed. Still...you can't exactly 'over-draw,' from a Biju, as a Jinchuriki. What aren't you telling me? I'm not playing games with you, so you shouldn't try to with me."

"I might have, maybe, torn off the seal."

"You did _WHAT?_ " Jiraiya practically screamed himself hoarse in one word.

"Hey, hey, calm down!" Naruto said, waving his hands non-threateningly. "The seal is back up. Don't ask me how it's back up, I don't _know_ how it's back up. I'm not being possessed, though. The...outburst...is probably because of that too. I may have more in the future."

"Well, then I guess there's not much I can do about it." Jiraiya said. "Now, I've got one last thing to say before you can get back to your training with Fukasaku-sama: Once these Chunin Exams are over, I'm going to end the training trip. I know that I told you three years, but since you've apparently started learning Senjutsu without me, there's really nothing left I can teach you. I'll recommend a promotion to Jounin for you, and for Tayuya to be instated at that level as well. You'll have to work out how the twins, and your grandmother, play into this. If they want to, that is."

"Nothing left to teach me?"

"Nothing that needs to be taught." Jiraiya corrected his earlier wording. "People call me a Fuinjutsu master, the best in the world at it, but I'm really not much compared to the Uzumaki at their height. I mean, the last seal you used on me in that fight? I've never seen a seal do that. To most people, 'Fuinjutsu master,' is basically just a fancy term for, 'the person who makes things go boom.' The chakra limiter and Slog Seal are my own inventions, and they're pretty damn useful, but sealing is an art form. Even if you've learned from me, your seals won't be like mine, because our styles are different. If you really want to get better at it, you'll have to practice your hand writing...a lot."

"Aw, damn, I hate that. There's a reason grammar was my worst subject!"

"Not math? You seem like the kind of kid who'd be bad at...well, almost everything."

"Math is easy, it's all numbers. I don't need to know complicated stuff like calculus, I leave that to the guys who aren't gonna be fighting. But I know that four is more than two, so I'd usually want to be on the side with four. Science...I don't really care about jutsu theory, I care about _using_ jutsu to kick ass. Isn't that called practical application? Besides, I know my elements. Fire and earth beat wind, wind beats lightning, lightning beats earth and water, earth and water beat fire. Lightning and water combine, fire and wind combine, earth and water combine. Once you know what beats what, and what pairs well together, it's easy. History...I didn't do well, but I'm trying to learn from the mistakes of the past. That way, I won't make those mistakes."

"But your handwriting..."

"Well, fuck, I don't have a defense for that. What is this, Nuremburg?"

"That was a trial made for crimes against humanity. They lost, by the way."

"I...what the fuck? Damn, I guess it's good that I'm a ninja, not a lawyer."

Jiraiya laughed.

"Alright, kid. We've got two days before we head back to Suna...work hard."

"Where're you going, then?"

"I've got a little reconnaissance to run. I'll see what news I can find about the Akatsuki."

"Sounds like a plan. Meet back in Suna, in two days?"

* * *

"Your support means more than you know."

The pair were clothed in the soft shadow thrown by a candle, hand in hand as they laid together.

"I could never, ever, abandon you. It's thanks to you that I became the man I am. It's thanks to me that you stand as you are now, prouder and stronger and more capable than you ever were before the day we met." He declared.

"I wish you would come more often." She said.

"I'll never be able to devote all of my time to you. You know that, don't you?"

"I know." She rolled over, kissing him and placing a hand on his bare chest. "Where did you get the scar?"

"Thought I had the son of a bitch cornered. Turns out, he knew his situation better than I did."

"Aw, poor little man. You know you've never been the smart one. That's always been the job of your teammates. You got saddled with being the stupid kid on a team of geniuses, and the dumb adult teaching brilliant kids."

"Hey, that's not nice, Ronbun Tenshi-chan...even if it's true."

"I don't care. Go back to loving me."

The man laughed.

"As you command, my little angel. I'll do _whatever_ you want."

"Whatever I want?" She asked.

"Anything at all."

"Make me feel like I did all those years ago. Before all those years of death and pain, before the manipulation...make me believe in love, and peace, again. When I was just a student, and you were my master. When you owned me completely. My mind, my body, and," she lowered herself on to his chest, her head dipping low to whisper in his ear, "my soul as well."

He breathed heavily and turned his head, the wind from his lungs strong enough to blow out the single candle giving them light.

"Do you feel bad about it, sometimes, because I was so young? I never have. I was the one who came to you, after all, wasn't I?" She laughed.

"I regret giving in so early." He said. "Not all the love we've shared since then."

"That's true, I was such a _wicked_ little girl...but I made sure you knew I loved you, didn't I? Here, let me show you again. Be as rough as you want...master."

In that moment, as he'd come across the revelation so many times before, Jiraiya knew that he was a man whose crimes would never be forgiven, except by the one woman on earth who genuinely loved him.


	27. Differences Between Men (& Omake 1)

**Hey, I'm here! New chapter, fresh off the press. Not much to say, other than that. There's no real review response this chapter, since all the response-worthy reviews basically said the same thing about using, "Ronbun," instead of, "Kami," for Konan's nickname.**

 **That was _absolutely_ on purpose. The entire line was a setup, a play on Neon Genesis Evangelion's OP, "Cruel Angel's Thesis."**

 **"Ronbun (論文)," is the word for an academic paper/essay, et al., and I really hope I don't have to explain to anybody why Konan would be called an angel. So that leaves us with Jiraiya's words leading up to the nickname, where he says, "...that's not nice," and as I'm sure we're all aware, cruel is most definitely a synonym for, "not nice."**

 **Cruel Essay Angel.**

 **A Cruel Angel's Thesis.**

 **Please excuse me while I fellate myself in full view of the world over the genius of that play on words. That's the best fucking thing I've ever written in my entire life. In the meantime, though...**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

Naruto felt the still-unfamiliar tug of a reverse-summoning, and didn't even have time to groan in protest before the whirling sensation brought him into a nondescript room in the Kazekage's family home.

"Ugh...I _hate_ that." He groaned. "Who's here?"

"The Raikage and his guards are both in Suna, and apparently the Mizukage will be here in a couple hours. Tsunade will be here tomorrow." Jiraiya responded.

"Gaara is gonna be happy about that." Naruto laughed. "Mei, not Tsunade. They really hit it off in Kiri, but I couldn't tell you why."

"Hm...two lonely souls, isolated by their power, find solace in each other's arms. Yeah, I think I could make that work. I tell you what, kid, even after this trip is over I'm gonna stick around you. You manage to come across some _fantastic_ literature ideas, and you're not even the one they happen to!"

"I'm not gonna be a proxy to you writing your fuckin' smut."

"Well, then what kind of smut _would_ you proxy?" Jiraiya grinned.

"Oh, god damn it. I walked right into that one." Naruto groaned. "Anyway, though, were you serious about ending the training trip?"

"Yes, your vacation's getting cut short. Sorry if I'm not really apologetic about that."

"This has got to be the shittiest vacation I've ever gone on, Ero-sennin, and I really haven't gone on _any_. I mean, Tsunade obaa-chan made me take it, my teacher is an unrelenting pervert, my friends are probably all pissed off at me because they've been stuck at home while I'm running around the world...oh, and my _family_ tagged along." Naruto joked. "Also, there's the part where Tayuya-chan and I haven't done anything yet, but that's okay. She's strong-willed, I'll wait for her to come to me about it."

"Kid...are you telling me that one, you haven't done anything with her yet, and two, you're not gonna romance her? What the fuck have you learned from me, if not the art of seduction?" Jiraiya gawked. "God, if I were in your place, the things that I would have done...for the dead gods' sakes, you two _sleep in the same bed!_ How on earth have you two not gone beyond kissing?"

"Ero-sennin, I'm pretty sure the only reason you write those books is because you can't do anything that happens in them. Besides, we're both comfortable taking things slowly."

"How would you know what happens in those books?"

"Kakashi-sensei is easy for me to sneak up on...or maybe he just doesn't care."

Jiraiya groaned.

"Either way, you're wrong." He said. "Matter of fact, I brought a woman back here with me. She's the one I based the heroine of _'Icha Icha Paradise: Gakuen'_ off of."

Naruto frowned, trying to come up with something to say after that revelation.

"There can't _really_ be a woman who actually loves you, out in the living room. Your reputation with women is too shitty. Even if the law of averages is in effect, I refuse to believe the idea that someone could really fall for a known peeping tom like you."

"Hey, I take offense to that! It's not my fault that I am a man who enjoys and purveys the greatness of the feminine form!"

"More like a man who's still bitter that he never motorboated Tsunde obaa-chan before she got old and wrinkly." Naruto's verbal jab was sharp, leaving Jiraiya amazed and mildly hurt. "Now, come on, show me this mystery woman of yours."

The only reason Naruto had said those words was because Tsunade wasn't within a hundred miles of his location, or even aware of where he was. Still...Jiraiya had to admit that there was some grain of truth to those words. Tsunade had never taken his advances seriously, and he'd been determined to make sure she knew that he really felt that way about her.

Then, Dan had appeared in her life. That had been a low point in Jiraiya's life, at the time. Dan's death, on the other hand, had practically been cause for a one-man celebration. The war had continued on for four more years, technically five by the time the peace treaties actually went into effect, and he'd told himself that after the war was done he would propose to Tsunade...but near the very end of the war was the Amegakure campaign, the battle against Hanzo that had left only the Sannin alive. Following that, he'd come across the orphans and elected to stay behind.

He kept putting it off for so many other reasons...and then Konan's advances had happened. Jiraiya, so unused to being given any sort of attention or affection by a girl or woman since the death of his mother, had folded quickly when Konan had wanted to show him her, "gratitude," for protecting her and teaching her Ninjutsu. He'd stayed in Ame for nine years, and the first six had encounters that were entirely from Konan's initiative. Only in the last three, when Jiraiya had finally accepted that the situation wasn't going to change, had he started taking charge.

When he'd returned to Konoha, Tsunade had been gone, and that made Jiraiya perfectly happy; there was no way he could have faced her, or told her he loved her, like he had always planned to do. He had not forgiven Dan, and he never would, but the knowledge that he had sunken just as low was enough to keep his feelings in check when Shizune had been assigned to the team he taught.

"Alright, let's go." Jiraiya opened the door.

* * *

"I never knew that birdshit-sensei had a girlfriend." Tayuya said. "Nice to meet you, though...Konan?"

Konan wore a navy cheongsam to match the rose her hair, and she tilted her head as she gave an eyes-closed smile.

"I've known Jiraiya since...how long _has_ it been? Thirty-three years? He found me hiding under...no, that's probably not a story you should hear." Konan corrected herself. "He's ten years older than I am, and we met at the end of the Second Great War."

"That's a long time. Isn't it weird to be with a man that much older than you are?"

"Not to me." Konan said. "He's a sweetheart, really. After my parents died, he taught me how to be a ninja. He's always been there for me, even if he couldn't always physically be with me. We were together for nine years, until he got called back to Konoha...that was the worst day of my life. Still, he promised he would come back for me, and he always has. If nothing else, Jiraiya is a man who doesn't go back on his word."

Tayuya could sympathize; Naruto was no genius, and he had his moments of rage, but he was only ever kind to her. He made her laugh and smile, made her forget the years she'd spent as Orochimaru's glorified servant. Though she called him, "piss-for-brains," the idea she most associated with Naruto's hair was the warmth of the sun...and he always kept his promises.

A door opened down the hall, and their respective men came into view momentarily.

"Naruto!"

Before the blond could blink, he'd been trucked to the ground by Tayuya's enthusiasm.

"Missed you too..." Naruto groaned. "Geez, what's wrong with a hug?"

"This is a hug, piss-for-brains. If you're not careful, it'll become a death-grip."

She got up, and helped him to stand on his feet again.

"Naruto, this is Konan." Jiraiya said. "Konan, this is..."

"Oh, I know who this is." She said. "He's the son of the boy you left me for! I had _just_ grown up, there was so much I wanted to do for you...to you..."

"Ero-sennin, you're telling me that you turned down this woman to train my parents? How could you be so heartless? It's _very_ clear that she needed you."

"Oh, Naruto, you're so right!" Konan caught her head in her hands, despairing. "I was a young girl, lost and alone without my beloved Jiraiya..."

"As I recall, Yahiko and Nagato were both there with you when I left." Jiraiya said. "I'm not just going to take this kind of abuse!"

"Yes you are." Tayuya said. "You're gonna like it, too. Or else, Naruto could always use _that_ jutsu..."

"How did you find out about that?"

"You got drunk and lost a bet." Tayuya grinned.

"This is the thanks I get." Jiraiya bemoaned his lot in life. "I train you all, I take you in, I save your lives...and after all these years, my students still come back to mock me for my failures."

"Stop failing, then, dear." Konan said, putting an arm around his shoulders. "Or find more respectful students."

I _had_ respectful students! And, somehow, they brought out thatboy!"

At that proclamation, an evil glint came into Naruto's eyes.

"Hey, Ero-sennin, what do you call a man whose destiny is to get surpassed by everyone he ever opens his mouth around?"

"Uh, I don't know. What?"

"Jiraiya."

"Why you little-" Jiraiya began to chase Naruto around the living room, but the blond was always just a little too quick to get caught.

Tayuya and Konan laughed; despite the differences between both men, they were alike in more ways than one. Days like this, peaceful and filled with laughter...that was what they fought for.

A folded battle-fan came out of nowhere, and Jiraiya ran head-first into it, stopping the chase as Temari walked into view.

"I changed my mind, Naruto. You were right...but don't expect to get away without some of that payment you mentioned."

Naruto, for his part, grinned sheepishly as he summoned shadow clones who vanished out into the desert southwest of Suna.

"So, Goldilocks, how did your _date_ go?" Tayuya smirked.

"It, uh, I...um..." Temari blushed, flustered.

"Temari, you went on a _what?_ " Kankuro yelled from down the hall, though it was unlikely he'd have heard much beyond Temari's door opening and the word, "date."

In record time, he'd made it to the now-packed living room. Tayuya and Konan sat down on the couch, Jiraiya and Naruto in chairs opposite each other. Kankuro stood in the hallway, meaning there was no escape for his older sister.

"It wasn't my idea! Tayuya decided to play matchmaker!"

"That wasn't the question, Goldilocks. The question was whether or not I did a good job. Besides, _you're_ the one with a crush on a civilian..."

"Oh my god." Kankuro said. "Who?"

"Her waiter, down at the Shining Lotus. Ever wonder why she goes there so much? The boys are all shirtless in kilts and the girls don't have much more than a washcloth for a bra. Hell, maybe she has a crush on the waitress too!"

"You have to take me there." Jiraiya said. "It's for important research purposes."

Five heads swiveled, amazed that Jiraiya had the balls to say that in a room filled with three powerful kunoichi.

"Jiraiya- _sensei_..." Konan's voice had a dangerous edge to it. "Even with me right here, you still want to go off and ogle other women? I know I can't stop you when I'm not around, but..."

A slip of paper flew out of her sleeve, an explosive tag soon covering Jiraiya's mouth. It was a dummy, of course, but Jiraiya didn't know that.

"There, now we don't have to listen to you. Open your mouth, and that seal will go off." More slips of paper came off of her body, wrapping around Jiraiya's head until he could neither see nor hear the proceedings. "That seal was fake. As much as I love him...someone has to keep him in line."

Nobody had noticed, with the change of their focus, that Temari had managed to flee the gathering and make it back to her bedroom, with a lock on the door.

* * *

"Where is Konan?" Tobi asked.

"In Suna, gathering intelligence on the Jinchuriki." Pein responded emotionlessly.

"And that doesn't bother you at all?"

"No. Why would it? She and I are friends, and always have been, but no more. Neither of us wants more. I would not presume to give her orders that she would have difficulty following. She knows the importance of our mission."

"Well, far be it from me to attempt understanding the thoughts of a god." Tobi said.

"Patronize me, and you _will_ suffer." Pein replied. "Konan's heart has always belonged to Jiraiya-sensei. I never saw a reason to attempt contesting that claim. That is the end of the story."

The redhead did an abrupt about-face, brusquely marching away, and Maya came into view by ending her _Kamui_ technique.

"You probably shouldn't push him." She said. "Keep in mind, what's bad for him is bad for you."

"As if I don't already know that." Tobi shunned her concerns. "I'm prepared for anything. Did you bring Itachi into the fold?"

"Easily. All I had to do was show him my face...unlike yours, mine remains intact."

"Keep speaking disrespectfully, and I'll cut out your tongue." He growled.

Without warning, a kunai's razored edge was at his throat.

"I dare you to try." Itachi whispered from behind the elder Uchiha.

Tobi used his _Kamui_ to slip away before returning to his tangible form. In Itachi's eyes, two triple-tomoe Sharingan whirled angrily; Tobi hadn't seen, heard, or even sensed Itachi's presence when he'd appeared. For a pacifist, the Kinslayer was a brutally efficient assassin. If he'd willed it, then Tobi would have died.

Tobi was a smart man. He knew enough to heed the warning he'd just been given.

"Cute." Tobi said. "One day, that boundless heart of peace and love will come back to haunt you, Itachi."

"Ironic words, coming from a man who supposedly died because he believed in saving the life of a comrade who died regardless of his actions." Itachi countered. "Do not mistake my mercy for anything less than an affirmation of your insignificance in the face of my power. I killed more than three hundred Uchiha in one night...one more, as weak as you are, wouldn't be difficult."

He wasn't bluffing. Far from it, in fact; that night, the majority of the Uchiha clan had been awake and alert as they planned their coup d'etat against Konoha's hierarchy. Without batting an eye, he had taken the lives of Uchiha Izumi and her mother, immediately followed by the swift murders of Konoha's entire police agency. The bodies destroyed, he had left no traces, and as the war council had let out he'd begun his second wave. His parents, he had saved for last, and Sasuke had walked in immediately after Itachi shoved his blade though both his parents' hearts.

He was a pacifist, and a philosophical soul, but Tobi would never want to face off against Itachi. When the chips were down, and he had nothing to lose except the life he held in contempt, he was the epitome of the ninja way.

"Boys, calm down." Maya said. "We can't work together to achieve our goals if all we do is fight with one another."

As she looked at them, beholding the _Nidaime Madara_ in one eye and the _Uchiha no Yurei_ in the other, she could see nothing similar about them except the Curse of Hatred that gave them power.

A world where Tobi was in complete control. A world where Sasuke would be safe. Those were the things they fought for, and it just so happened that they could make them coincide. If it ended any other way, then the two would kill each other before they could be stopped.

Maya sighed quietly, a frown on her face.

This time, it was Tobi's turn to disappear in a _Kamui,_ and the lack of his presence couldn't have made either of the younger Uchiha any happier.

"I hate that man. The dead should stay dead, I don't care how or why he managed to remain alive."

"Even me, Itachi-kun?"

"Yes...Maya. Even you. I won't veer from the path I chose when I killed you. You came back to me, but that's no more than one sin removed among countless others that remain. My only redemption will be my death, and Sasuke will be my redeemer."

"Saying nothing about that disease, hm?"

"How do you-"

"Oh, please, Itachi-kun. I watched over you every single day of our lives." Maya's frown was gone beneath her mask, replaced by a genuine smile that Itachi would never see. "I could even tell you the day you contracted it, and the composition of the cure...not that you'd listen. No matter how much I love you, it's never been enough to make you walk away from whatever course you decide to set yourself on."

"You, watch over me?" He didn't laugh, but the sarcasm was practically dripping from his lips.

"Every single day since you died." She said. "Because the man who made his decision to protect Konoha by killing his clan, and the man who walked away after committing the deed, were two different people. One was Uchiha Itachi, _my_ Itachi-kun. The other was nothing but a shell, with nothing left inside except the desire to become a corpse and join the loved ones he'd slaughtered."

Itachi was silent.

"Do you even want to know how?" Maya asked.

"No." He said. "I don't want to know. All you'll do is try to make me pull away from the path I chose, make things complicated, muddy the plan for what happens after I die."

"All these contingency plans, Itachi-kun..."

"Don't call me that. The dead should _stay dead._ " He snarled.

"Kill me, then. Show me that, in your heart, you truly care nothing for me."

Maya took off her mask, spreading her arms wide.

"The only catch is that you have to look me in the eyes when you do it, just like you did six years ago."

The kunai, still in his hand from threatening Tobi, was beside her in an instant. As Itachi looked into her eyes, one hand around her warm throat, he could feel her heartbeat speed up through the pulse in her neck.

The seconds passed with ominous languidness, the precision of his hand allowing no shaking movements.

"You." Itachi said, only guilt in his voice.

Guilt that he could not complete his mission. Guilt that he couldn't bear to soldier on. Guilt at what he had tried to do. Guilt that he couldn't move his hand, and finish the job he'd started so long ago.

Guilt that Uchiha Itachi was a dead man.

"You will always be mine."

The kunai fell from his hand, and he kissed her without reservation.

* * *

 **That's the end of the chapter. Now, as promised, the first omake... _Naruto: The Hunt for Shai-Hulud._**

* * *

"Man, I'm thirsty." One clone said. "Hey, why do you think boss sent us all the way out here instead of coming himself?"

"Well, we're all part of boss' mind." Another clone responded. "He likes to over-use clones when the situation needs a lot of firepower, or when he's trying to avoid dying to a jutsu that can only affect one person at a time."

The ground beneath them rumbled.

"Earthquake?" One of the other clones asked.

There were several hundreds of them, marching through the desert. Made with Senjutsu chakra, they were hardier than normal _Kage Bunshin,_ but their individual appearances varied slightly from Naruto's own image. It had been three days since they'd been sent out into the dunes, hunting relentlessly for a beast most believed to be mythological.

"In a desert? No, not an earthquake. But it's not a sandstorm either, there's barely any wind. Which means..."

They'd found what they were looking for.

"All hands!" A clone with long, red hair and green eyes shouted, far in the lead compared to the rest of the pack. "All hands, we are running away! Get the _fuck_ out if you don't want to die!"

Moments later, the ground around that specific clone was gone. In its place was the still-rising body of what Suna's ninja referred to as _Kodo-Ryu,_ the Tunnel Dragons. It rose, and rose, and continued reaching into the sky for more than four hundred yards before its tail came out from the ground and it twisted to begin its mouth-first fall into the desert. It was wrapped in orange scales, and its Y-beaked mouth expelled heat like a furnace. It was massive in diameter, almost a quarter wide as it was long, and the rows of teeth inside of it were razor-sharp.

"Prepare hooks!" Another clone called out. "Throw when ready!"

A large group of clones was wiped out as the sandworm landed, but several of the so called, "rider-hooks," aimed true. Scales pried open, the great beast thrashed without submerging; though it lived in sand, the discomfort caused by getting it caught inside of its scales.

"Hop on, it's time to ride!" Yet another clone cried, clambering atop the beast as other _Kage Bunshin_ followed suit.

After some trial-and-error learning, they knew how to make the sandworm turn or speed up, skipping across the dunes like a stone across a pond. Finally, as Sunagakure appeared to be little more than a speck of dust on the horizon, the worm began to tire. Still the clones rode it, forcing it onward...and then, finally, it stopped in its tracks.

"Keep the hooks in. It's time to finish the job."

Two clones hopped off, weaving their jutsu as several others atop the mighty sand-strider dispelled, giving more chakra to their brethren.

"Suiton: Onami no Umi no Gouon!" The Roaring Ocean's Great Wave came to life, billowing forward down the massive creature's throat and drowning it.

The fact that water was the only known poison for a sandworm was also something of a comfort.

"Okay, so...now what do we do?"

The clones all dispelled at once; they'd done the hard work. The real Naruto could come out and finish the job of picking apart a corpse.

Rolling over as he woke up, next to Tayuya, Naruto groaned.

He should have sent more obedient clones to do the job.


	28. Dual Revelations

**I'm back again (and about time too, and this time, he's in the mood/he can fly real high with his-) *speaking to self* I must not sing the DK Rap. I must not sing the DK Rap. I must not...oh, who the hell am I kidding, I need to write.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. Lord Bedhead: Maya is, in fact, a character from the series; she's not an OC. While a couple other people caught wind of the idea, whether it was a lucky guess or I had dropped a few too many subtle hints...well, I'll string you along for as far as I can, because I'm an asshole, and maybe the suspense will keep you on your toes? I don't know.**

 **As for Itachi: I'm trying to give some characters a much more fleshed-out feeling. Jiraiya was first, as his relationship with Konan gives him a (rather enormous) character flaw. Or two. Tobi may be a good boy, but Jiraiya is a bad man. Itachi, meanwhile, is a man who is loyal to three things across canon: Sasuke, Konoha, and the rest of the Uchiha, in that order. However...loyalty is something that's tested when love is in the heart. If Itachi has someone who can bond with him strongly enough to override his love for his brother, then he has someone who will be able to help shape his decisions.**

 **Jiraiya's character flaw is hypocrisy. Naruto's is stupidity.** **Itachi cares too much about "Maya" for anything remotely close to his own good.**

 **2\. OneLunchMan: Good to know nothing happened to you while you were away! I would have missed the positive validation.**

 **3\. Clipsus: Well, I'm glad that _somebody_ enjoys my egotistical boasting.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

As Tsunade walked through the gates of Sunagakure, she was greeted by a welcoming committee that was a little larger than she'd expected. Kakashi was there with his two students and Jie Tenten, whose father had come all the way out to the desert nation in order to support his daughter. The Kazekage, Raikage, and Mizukage were all gathered, though she was surprised to see a different person wearing Kirigakure's hat than Yagura. In addition to their guards, seven unexpected figures stood waiting for her.

Jiraiya, Naruto, and Tayuya, she knew. The redheaded woman behind Naruto was Uzumaki Oboro; someone she'd heard of, and known, but only met once. The blue-haired woman beside Jiraiya looked startlingly similar to one of the orphaned children from Ame that he'd decided to train before returning to Konoha and taking on an official Genin team. She had no clue as to the identities of the two children standing between Naruto and Tayuya.

Raising an eyebrow at her former teammate, her response was a silently-mouthed, "I'll explain later."

"Well, there's certainly more of you than I expected." Tsunade said. "Good afternoon."

Her chosen guards were the clanless Yamato, and Uzuki Yugao. Both had been under Kakashi's command on Team Ro, missing only Uchiha Itachi to complete their original quartet. In the event of an attack, similar to what had happened in Konoha a year and a half ago, the two of them could fall in place with Kakashi to ensure the safety of their allies.

"Good afternoon, Hokage-dono. I'm Terumi Mei, the Godaime Mizukage...I believe I'm the only one you didn't know?"

"Correct." Tsunade said.

Now, as to what Mei was doing with her guards, one of whom was wearing two bolted-on eyepatches and the other being former nukenin Momochi Zabuza...that was an entirely different question. Between the two of them, with the blue-haired Ao's covered eyes and with Zabuza's head covered in bandages _except_ for his eyes, the two combined to make a completely hidden face.

"It's good to see you." Gaara said quietly. "The bouts themselves won't begin for another two days, but I'm glad that we can all be gathered together. At the very least, it means that the Akatsuki is unlikely to attempt anything similar to what happened in Kumogakure last month."

E visibly tensed at those words, causing Tsunade and Mei to look at him and wonder what Gaara meant.

"What happened? We weren't aware of anything..." Tsunade trailed off. "Jiraiya, you knew about this?"

"I was there when it happened, though not until after they'd retreated. Three of the four of them had been using some sort of mind-melding jutsu that allowed them to force others to take on their appearances and fight under their control. The fourth, Uchiha Itachi, fled before we could apprehend him."

"My brother was in Kumo?" Sasuke turned to ask, looking at Naruto. "I remember you said you came across him, but I thought it was about the rebellion."

"Yeah, and he dragged me to hell and back like a personal ragdoll." Naruto winced at the memory. "Left me alive, though. Said something about it being too early to seal me away. If it had been during the rebellion, I'd have been _fucked._ "

Not the whole truth, but not a lie, either; he _had_ heard something to that effect. Whether Itachi had just decided to be generous that day, or the real plan had been to subdue and capture all four Jinchuriki in Kumo until such a time as they could be properly sealed away, was relatively unimportant. The real battle had been Itachi's attempt to prove to Naruto that he was still loyal to Konoha.

He'd succeeded.

"We're going to talk, later." Sasuke declared quietly.

"Naruto, you fought Uchiha Itachi? Wait...you fought in _Kirigakure's rebellion?_ "

"Good god, you're gonna wear out the name if you keep dropping it that much. Hell, if you're gonna say someone's name with that much formality, it'd better be mine, because I'm not gonna rest until I take that hat straight off your head and crown myself the next Hokage!" Naruto said, grinning. "Can you imagine how he'd feel right now, knowing that the entire world is just getting a big circle-jerk out of itself by vilifying his name? You make me want to laugh, Tsunade obaa-chan."

"Well, at least now I know for sure that your irreverence for authority is a blanket statement." Mei said with a smile. "And, for the record, Naruto-koi fought for me. He fought three Jinchuriki at once: the Sanbi, Rokubi, and Hachibi. He killed Yagura single-handedly, and defeated him in his full possession mode."

All eyes swiveled to Naruto, whose smile turned sheepish as he stood there.

"Hokage-dono, you'd be amazed by some of the things you can accomplish with duct tape and a rusted spoon. Respect for authority, however grudging, is one of them." E joked.

"You'd have to catch me, first." Naruto replied. "And we all know good and well that'll never happen in a million years."

Tayuya grabbed her boyfriend's arms.

"Caught you."

"Hey, that's not fair!" He cried.

"Yeah, so get over it, piss-for-brains. I don't give a damn if you don't respect anyone else, but you're two nuts short of a fuckin' pair if you think you're gonna get away with disrespecting _me._ "

"As you can see, I have something of a system in place." Tsunade said, looking to the other Kage before her. "Now, should we go and sit down somewhere? It was a long walk from Konoha."

The assembled party agreed, dispersing.

* * *

"Of all the people who could have come after me, it had to be your brother." Naruto said. "Had to be the _one_ guy in the world who nobody in their right mind wants to fight. Full offense."

"None taken." Sasuke replied.

The two were sitting down in Sasuke's hotel room, which he was sharing with Kakashi.

"Why is it that you're so damn driven? I mean, revenge is one thing, but you almost turned traitor in an attempt to get strong enough to fight him. That's more than a vendetta, that's an obsession."

"When you saw him, did he use the Tsukuyomi on you?"

"He...yeah, he did. What's that got to-" Naruto didn't get to finish his question.

"He did it to me too, that night. If it weren't for the fact that it's impossible to layer...he used it and made me watch his memories, killing our clan I saw how every single one of them died."

"Nothing before then, though? Or after?"

He could probably be killed if word got to Danzo that he had revealed the truth to Sasuke.

"No. Why?"

"Naruto..." Kakashi walked into the room. "...would you really tell him that?"

"Tell me what?" Sasuke asked.

"He has a right to know. However long you were listening in, you can't deny that." Naruto said. "Just because the truth is hidden doesn't mean that it should never be revealed."

"What truth? What are you hiding?" Sasuke demanded angrily.

"You told me." Naruto said. "Not the same thing, but you told me something that was just as risky."

"I was in a controlled environment. The only witness was someone who would never betray me."

"God damn it, tell me already!" Sasuke growled.

Kakashi and Naruto both looked at him, the older shinobi sighing. Naruto got up and closed the door, placing a seal on the wall that neither of the other ninja recognized.

"It's a silencer." Naruto explained. "What's said in this room won't go beyond the three of us."

"Alright, then." Kakashi nodded.

"Will you tell me what's going on, now?" Sasuke asked. "You keep not responding!"

"Sasuke...there's no easy way to say this, but you're going to have to listen. I can cast a jutsu that forces us all to tell the truth, if you refuse to believe me." Kakashi said.

"I'm listening."

"You knew that Itachi killed your clan, all in one night, and only spared you. What you _didn't_ know is that he was under orders to do so. The Council of Elders, and the Sandaime Hokage, gave him the mission."

"What? But...that goes against what he told me. He did it to see how strong he was. He did it so that I could grow up hating him, and then he'd kill me when I became strong enough to challenge him."

"A persona he created to hide the pain he felt." Kakashi countered. "It was either stand with the Uchiha, and have them massacred to the last man, or kill them himself and spare your life. That was the ultimatum he was given. Your parents were the ringleaders of a rebellion bent on destroying Konoha, because of the rumors that an Uchiha was the one who summoned the Kyuubi and attacked the village."

"When he used the Tsukuyomi on me, he gave me a slightly different story." Naruto said. "He told me the Sandaime's orders were falsified, and it was all Danzo's doing."

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Kakashi's rhetorical question hung in the air for a few seconds before he continued. "Danzo likes to claim that he and his Ne force are the roots that give life to the symbolic tree of Konoha, but all it's ever seemed to be to me is that he is the root of all its evil."

Dealing with Orochimaru to regain his missing limbs. The death of the Uzumaki. The annihilation of the Uchiha. Each of the three gathered ninja had some sort of personal grudge against Shimura Danzo, whether it was any of these atrocities or the countless others he'd committed or ordered.

"You're...serious." Sasuke said. "He used the Tsukuyomi to give you that message?"

"He's still loyal to Konoha." Naruto replied.

"He's trapped, is what he is." Kakashi said. "He can't come back home, he can't erase the guilt he feels for his actions, and he can't move forward because he feels chained by the past. He pinned all his hopes and dreams on you, that you will be the one to kill him and free him from his curse. He was caught between a rock and a hard place, having to choose between his loyalty to his village or to his family."

"And he chose me...why? Why force me to bear the burden, why lie to me about the reasons? I would have...I could have..."

"What could you have done?" Kakashi asked softly. "You were a boy who'd barely learned the right way to swing a kunai. When hunters came to get your brother, he could have died defending you. There was nothing you could have done to save him from his fate. He is an exile, by choice and circumstance. For better or worse, he genuinely believes that nothing except his death at your hands will bring him absolution."

"That's not fair."

"No, but life never is." Naruto said. "But would you rather go back to the way things were, now that you know the truth? Your anger was aimed at the wrong person all along."

"Naruto...you and I are still going to train. Not to kill my brother, though. Not anymore. I don't care what I have to do." The Sharingan spun rapidly in Sasuke's eyes, rage and grief and the promise of salvation passing through his mind as tears threatened to spill out. "I'm going to kill the man who set him up for failure."

The Curse of Hatred was made manifest one final time, the last of the Uchiha awakening his Mangekyou in remorse for all the hatred he'd felt for his only brother.

The three ovals in his newly strengthened eyes overlapped to give the appearance of an atom, and both of the other men in the room looked away as Sasuke's mind struggled to accept the knowledge that had been torn away from him in exchange for the truth of his world. They got up and left the room, though the silencer seal stayed in place on the wall to allow their comrade the chance to quietly reach his conclusion.

Sasuke was strong, but it would take time to come to grips with such an overwhelming paradigm shift.

They would leave him to it.

* * *

"I'm requesting an end to the training trip." Jiraiya said, relaxing on a couch next to the over-large chair Tsunade sat in.

"After you were so adamant about taking him, and the girl...Tayuya? What changed your mind, not even halfway through?"

"You heard the other Kage speak. He fought in Kiri's rebellion," Jiraiya ignored the pointed look that told him it was his own fault that happened, "and killed the Sanbi Jinchuriki, Yagura, the Yondaime Mizukage. But something...unexpected...happened."

"Unexpected? How?"

"Tayuya took a mortal blow for him. The damage was so severe that the only way to save her life was to make her the new Sanbi host."

"You did _what?_ "

"She hasn't shown any sort of contact with the demon, or used its chakra at all. Whether that's a feint to keep us unaware of the extent of her power, or a genuine lack of ability with it, it's inside of her. Truth be told, I think they're more loyal to each other than they would be to Konoha, or any other village. It's blind fortune that Naruto's as happy to be in Konoha as anywhere else, because that means we'll have two Jinchuriki."

"Does he know that I'm..."

"No, he doesn't even suspect it. Truthfully, I don't think he'd care. He knows you're one-quarter Uzumaki, which makes you family enough to him."

"And what about those other three? The woman, I recognize, but the children...Jiraiya, what kind of affair were you having?"

"It's only an affair if you're married, Tsunade-hime." Jiraiya waggled a finger. "Uzumaki Oboro is your counterpart, his maternal grandmother. The children are twins, Rei and Kouga, and...oh, you're not going to believe this for a _second._ I can tell already. They're your grandfather's time-lost cousins, at least according to them."

"What? How? That's bizarre, even for one of your novels, Jiraiya...not the smut, the real novels."

"Those never sold well. It is fitting, though...Naruto's named after the protagonist of the first one I ever wrote. Either way, I'm telling the truth. You could ask them yourselves; they know all kinds of bullshit about the Shodaime, Madara, and the Warring Clans era. Would you believe that your grandfather slept with a teddy bear until he and his wife began living together?"

"How would anybody else know...good god, they're telling the truth. How on earth did-"

"That's Naruto's department. According to him, all three of them were trapped in some gigantic chakra construct put in a pocket dimension inside of one of Uzushio's defense posts."

That was about the most convoluted bullshit Tsunade had ever heard in her life.

This was Jiraiya, though; he _could_ make things like this up, but he would never lie to her.

"A gigantic chakra construct...that he somehow broke out of, and brought them with him."

"Uh...yeah. Look, I _know_ how stupid it sounds, but you've got to believe me here." Jiraiya pleaded with her. "I don't know what the hell went on, or how he did it, but whatever it was...it's done, and those three being here are all the proof you need. The twins, in particular, are an anomaly beyond any words I can come up with. They call the Shodaime and Uchiha Madara their cousins. They can cut through lightning with a Suiton technique. They're nine years old, and it's like I'm looking at the new geniuses of a generation."

"Sounds to me like they're really the _last_ of their generation. If they were my grandfather's age, then their talent fits right alongside what we know about that time: no matter how young the child, they were trained to fight and excel. Compared to those days, we've enjoyed relative peace, and even our Great Wars were nothing like those days."

"Either way, they give me the willies. Their existence is such an anomaly to me, I've really just left them to their own devices or to be trained by Oboro...and maybe that's bad of me, but honest to the dead gods, I have no clue what I'd do with them."

"Well, what about skill levels? All four of them."

"The twins are Chunin in terms of raw skills, I'd give them B-ranked Ninjutsu and Kenjutsu with a C-rank in Taijutsu. They're both complete failures at Genjutsu. Might be a family trait? Either way, their age and mental state would necessitate that they'd be Genin, even with their otherwise well-rounded abilities."

"And your latest red-and-blond students?"

"Tayuya was a Jounin when she served Orochimaru. Now she's a Jounin who's faster, stronger, and has a Biju inside of her stomach. A-ranked Taijutsu and Ninjutsu, S-ranked Genjutsu. Naruto...that boy's something else. All he got out of his father was his looks, and his dream. Kushina gave him everything else, and it shows."

"Oh?" Tsunade asked.

"He'd give me a run for my money if I was at full power. After what happened during the final battle of Kiri's revolution, he could probably level a hidden village if he felt like it by using the Kyuubi's chakra. He pulled down a meteor and created a mountain, Tsunade...that's not normal, or fair. I've taught him Ninjutsu and Taijutsu, he learned Senjutsu from the toads, and he butchered the Yondaime Mizukage with that sword on his back. Took off his limbs individually before he beheaded him. Stood over his hacked-off torso and screamed in victory."

The image in her head startled Tsunade; Yagura was no slouch, one of two Jinchuriki to have achieved perfect synchronization with his Biju. That Naruto could brutally murder him in cold blood, that he could _revel_ in it...it wasn't the Naruto she knew. At least, not the Naruto that she thought she knew.

"I'd rank him as having A-rank stats across the board, except Genjutsu." Jiraiya finished.

"Nobody can be good at everything." Tsunade agreed. "Do you think he's _ready_ to be a Jounin?"

"Yes. The more he's convinced we're holding him back, the uglier things will get if Konoha's insides come to blows...better to keep him on a loose leash, and happy, than to run the already-high risk of him choosing to oppose you."

"You think he'd side with Danzo?"

"Not in a million years. He wants to _kill_ that bastard...no. If it looked like you were in trouble, and all the ninja who don't like your style of handling Konoha were making their coup, I worry that he might jump ship from your camp in an attempt to take the seat for himself."

"He wouldn't do that." Tsunade said factually.

The silence that greeted her proclamation was uncomfortably familiar.


	29. The Third Exam Begins

**Hey, the word count is a little low...sorry about that, but I didn't want writer's block to get in the way of a chapter going unreleased for three days. I hope you'll enjoy this one, since I had some difficulty writing it!**

 **Now, it's been a month since I published this story. In that month, _Within the Straws I Grasp_ has accrued 151 reviews, 192 favorites, 320 followers, 1 C2, and 45,299 views. On top of that, the last chapter surpassed 100,000 words. (Since that includes ANs like this, though, the actual story content's word count is a little lower.)**

 **Thank you for your support!**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. OneLunchMan: Danzo and Black Zetsu are _absolutely_ the true villains of Naruto, beyond their status as antagonists. Victims don't turn out all nice and neat like storybooks make you believe, and that's one thing that Kishimoto did right; most of the series' villains were victims in their own way, and it made them into the villains they became. Jiraiya's interpretation of the Will of Fire...well, I'd say it's a hybrid of the Sandaime's and Minato's, as he was taught by the former and was the teacher of the latter. Loyalty to the person, going beyond even favoritism, but not so much that it overrides the loyalty to the village. Know what I mean?**

 **2\. Winter Arctica: I feel a bit like Kishimoto now with the way he used the Rinnegan late in canon. _You_ get a Rinnegan, _you_ get a Rinnegan! _Everybody_ gets a Rinnegan! On a serious note, though: you're right about Jiraiya being the prey in his situation, where Dan was the predator, but there's something to be said about an adult's culpability. As the adult in the situation, Jiraiya feels like he should have been in control and not allowed it to happen, and the fact that he gave in is what makes him feel like he's just as bad, if not worse, than Dan.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

Blood coated Tayuya's dreams like a thin paint, though she dreamed of a past that she refused to let into the forefront of her mind. On the surface, for Naruto, she pushed back the bile in her throat whenever he touched her in certain ways. She swallowed her guilt whenever he fidgeted in his sleep, and she'd wake at the movement in a reflexive fear for her life.

Tayuya had always been an incredibly light sleeper, staying perfectly still in order to avoid rousing others. Maybe that's why her dreams were never pleasant, on the rare occasions when she did manage to dream; her own uneasiness, in the dark of the night, kept her from having any sort of restful sleep.

 _Blood was on her hands, in her eyes, in her hair. It had thinned enough, with her tears, to see through in a red haze._

She clutched Naruto more tightly, the blond unresponsive to the pressure she was putting on him.

 _The knife in her hand, held against her will, plunged into the bodies of the living and the dead. In their eyes, in their hearts...it didn't matter. It was a long blade, gently curving to a tapered head, and it was coated with blood both dried and fresh. With every thrust, another life was taken; this was not a normal knife, it was a blade of sealing, like the Totsuka blade of legend. The mark at her neck was burning, hungry for more death as it continued to feed her power. Every kill gave her greater stamina, increased her speed, sharpened her sight. Every inch of her young body was brimming with electricity, hunting more, killing more, ready to annihilate._

 _And then she saw him...the White Snake. The man whose jutsu controlled her actions, the man who had caused her hands and face to become stained with blood. It took less than a moment's decision for her to lunge forward, intent on killing him for what he'd done._

 _"Oh?" He sidestepped her attack, far more agile than the civilians he'd made her kill. "You have the strength to break the illusion, and the compulsion? Interesting."_

 _She said nothing, grunting as she moved to strike again._

 _"You'll get nowhere with that." He admonished her._

 _At her third charge, Orochimaru sighed._

 _"Foolish." He kicked her back, his leg staying in the air for a moment before retracting._

 _Raising one hand, he activated another technique, and soon she was screaming into the earth as pain swept over her from the neck outward. She released the knife in her hand, fingers from both hands reaching up to claw away at the seal on her neck._

 _"If you want to kill me...come with me. I will train you until you're strong enough to do so. Become my right hand and my guardian, and seek to take my place on the Basilisk's Throne. Learn what I have to teach you, and settle for hating me until you can finally end my life."_

It would be a long time until the past gave way to the future, and the only thing that would come of it was the knowledge of just how much blood was on Tayuya's hands.

* * *

"Welcome, everyone, to the Chunin Exams!" Gaara's voice carried throughout the stadium, and the roar of the crowd resounded around him.

It was nostalgic. Though he hadn't appreciated it during his own trials, focused on the invasion to come, this reaction was a positive thing. He enjoyed the attention.

"Competing today, we have sixteen Genin from four of the five Great Villages, as well as Kusagakure, Amegakure, and Tanigakure! Their attacks will be real, and as they shed the blood of their nations you will see it all!"

In the gallery box, Naruto snorted. Standing or sitting around him were Oboro, Rei, Kouga, Tayuya, and the three foreign Kage.

"Way to make it a gladiator match. What are they, prisoners fighting for freedom?" He asked.

Gaara continued, oblivious to his friend's derision.

"Given the history of events at previous Chunin Exams, both here at home as well as abroad, I have asked a Fuinjutsu master to create a barrier around the arena's pit to avoid a weapon or jutsu from making its way into the crowd. Now, we will begin!"

Naruto gave a sly grin as Gaara performed his _Sabaku Shunshin,_ appearing in the seat marked, "Wind."

"You're welcome for that barrier, by the way." He said. "Not that I'm really a master, or anything."

"No, but it sets the civilians at ease to believe a true professional did the work. In all technicality, despite your proficiency, you're still a Chunin. Most people won't believe you have the skill necessary to pull off something as complicated as a reinforced chakra barrier." Oboro said. "Now be quiet, the first match is starting."

Naruto closed his mouth, eyes turning back to the battlefield.

"Well...first up, huh? This ought to be good." Naruto grinned.

Down below, Sakura and a boy from Kiri were the only two in the arena aside from the proctor.

* * *

"Do you have any grievances with fighting your opponent?" The proctor asked.

"No." Both Genin said, and the proctor nodded.

"Good." Raising his voice, he spoke to the crowd. "The first match: Haruno Sakura of Konohagakure, versus Satoru Genji of Kirigakure. Hajime!"

As the proctor seemed to vanish, Sakura burst into action. An illusory clone appeared on either side of her, and a seamless _kawarimi_ happened when her opponent attacked. She appeared behind him, and a vicious hook sent the boy flying. She'd managed to cut him at his cheekbone, green medical chakra coating her hands that was sharper than any scalpel. Her clones vanished,

"Better hope your reflexes are better next time." Sakura taunted. "Next time, I won't be nice."

Six kunai flew at her, but to Sakura they seemed to move in slow motion. Rather than dodging, she knocked each one aside as it came at her.

"Don't you dare mock me!" Genji cried out, rushing forward and weaving hand signs for his jutsu. "Suiton: Kirigakure no Jutsu!"

The technique brought back memories for Sakura.

"You're nothing compared to the man your village called a demon." Sakura said. "Your mist is thin. Your heart is racing. You have no way to strike."

Silently, Sakura wove her own hand seals for the _Doton: Chika Moru_ technique; the Basement Mole jutsu acted the way it sounded, and in a field with zero visibility...she would turn the mist against her opponent.

"Shut up!" Genji yelled, attacking her...and passing right through the place she'd been.

Sakura grinned from below, channeling the most evil voice she could. Chakra enunciated her voice, her diaphragm rumbling with a growl as she spoke.

"There are five targets..." She could hardly keep the smile off of her face. This had been _terrifying_ at the time, and truthfully the memory was almost as frightening. "The tibialis anterior. The flexor carpi radialis. The biceps brachii. The peroneus longus. The patellar retinaculum. If I surgically sever and remove any of those tendons, you'll lose the ability to move your arms or legs. Forfeit, or I _will_ strike."

Clearly, she'd gotten lucky; this one was obviously the weak link of his team. When only silence greeted her demand, she sighed.

"Alright, then. You chose your fate."

Moving above, back to standing on the ground, it didn't take long for Sakura to locate her opponent. He looked around nervously, waiting for an attack that hadn't come. His confidence was coming back with every passing second...perhaps it would serve him better to humiliate him, rather than just beating him.

"Ha! You haven't done anything. You're bluffing, you stupid flat bitch!"

In the stands, the other members of Team Seven winced visibly, and Tsunade's eyes widened in shock. Demeaning Sakura for her physical attributes was a surefire way to wind up in a world of pain.

That boy was dead where he stood.

Sakura decided against doing things with the finesse she had planned. As the mist around them faded, she leapt forward and used her chakra to cut all the way through his upper arms, followed by using a foot to widen his stance to an unstable footing. As he toppled backwards, Sakura dug her hands in the soft and boneless flesh next to his neck before violently ripping out both of his collarbones.

She took no pleasure in his screams, red-stained bones seeing daylight for the first time at their unnatural angle. He hit the ground, and the chakra disappeared from Sakura's hands before she gave a series of six punches that knocked him out.

"The victor is Haruno Sakura of Konohagakure!" The proctor said, reappearing.

* * *

"Tsunade obaa-chan...what the hell did you teach Sakura?"

"She's my apprentice. I'm teaching her _everything._ " The Hokage gave a villainous grin as she looked at her unknowing grandson. "I'm not going to let you and your teammate eclipse her, especially not when she shows so much promise. More than Shizune, even..."

"That reminds me, where is Shizune nee-chan?"

"She's back in Konoha, managing things in my place. Why do you ask?"

"I have a feeling she's not enjoying herself." Naruto said. "Call it an Uzumaki's intuition."

* * *

Naruto was, unknown to himself, unequivocally right.

"Shizune-chan, there's a shipment here that's supposed to be for Tsunade-sama. Do you have any idea what it might be?" Izumo asked.

"None. Just leave it by the desk, I'll take care of it."

"Are you sure? It's really heavy...maybe we can help?" Kotetsu offered.

"If you insist."

She could use all the help she could get. Between half of Konoha's men trying to ask her out, Anko attempting to drag her to the red light district for a, "party with male strippers that's sweeter than dango," and a previous delivery of twelve cases of premium Yugakure sake...she dreaded what this could be. The box was as high as her waist, and three times as wide as she was, on all sides.

Opening it, the Gate Guardians almost wanted to laugh at Shizune's horrified expression; the box was filled with sheet after sheet of scratch-off lottery tickets that had been billed to Tsunade, just like the sake had been.

Tonton grunted and shook his head, easily reflecting his owner's internal thought process as she looked at this inconceivable situation.

"Do either of you have a ryo coin?" She asked. "I'll pay you double your wages. Triple. You can even have some of the sake that arrived earlier."

"If we toss it out the window, do either of you have a Katon jutsu that could destroy it before it hit the ground? It'll scare the shit out of the civilians, but..."

"Kotetsu, I only know Suiton techniques. Shizune-sama doesn't use Katon techniques. Come on, be serious about this and pitch in."

"I would be pitching in, but you just vetoed my idea to pitch that box _out!_ God, I'm just trying to be constructive. Besides, it's not like any of these will be winning tickets, since Tsunade-sama bought them."

The Godaime Hokage's terrible luck was a known fact.

"Whatever, man. Take out a coin and start scratching. Have a drink or two, and enjoy the fact that we're not stuck at that gate."

Shizune knew that she would regret offering the men alcohol. Not because of some backlash from Tsunade; the Hokage had earned her fury. No, she was worried because absolutely nothing had gone well in the last three days.

What was next? Would Naruto appear and decide to paint the Hokage Monument...again?

* * *

Three matches passed by until it was Tenten's turn to fight against a kunoichi from Suna, Maido Ibuki. The adopted Jie, however, was determined that her bout wouldn't end the way it had the last time she'd gone to the Chunin Exams.

"Hajime!" The proctor shouted, disappearing.

Ibuki rushed forward, taking an aggressive opening position as Tenten wheeled to defend herself. A kunai met her sword, Tenten's superior-forged blade making a cut into her adversary's knife.

"Katon: Yami Hi no Ryu!" A black, burning dragon shot forward from her arm.

Tenten dodged, but remained wary. She was proven right moments later, bending over backwards to avoid the dragon's return strike, followed by its rise and explosion in the sky. Fiery rain fell down, some of it breaking against the barrier Naruto had made, but mostly concentrating in the pit of the arena.

Tenten threw a kunai, one with some markings etched in; Naruto had taken to carving an explosive seal into some of his sister's weapons, and he wasn't disappointed when Ibuki flew head over heels and became a sitting duck in the air.

For her part, Tenten had no idea what was happening, but she wouldn't lose the opportunity she'd been given.

"Jie: Tetsu no Mai, Ichi Kata!" The first form of her family's Dance of Iron, though she would make it nonlethal.

Two katanas were in her hands, which moved incredibly quickly for someone who was still only ranked a Genin. Each cut she made was shallow, some not even managing to break skin, but Ibuki's body was riddled with lines that marked where Tenten's swords had been. As her opponent fell face-up, Tenten crossed her blades above the girl's throat.

"The victor is Jie Tenten from Konohagakure!"

Her swords vanished back into their seals, and Tenten raised her hands above her head to make a small heart. Smiling, she dropped her arms back down before walking back to the arena's entrance so that she could rejoin her team.

* * *

"That was over fast." E said. "Kazekage-dono, I hope that's not a display of your village's general capabilities."

"Far from it. She comes from a civilian background, and is in her first year as a ninja. By that standard, to make it to the final round of the Chunin Exams shows a level of dedication that most clan-born ninja don't have. Almost two years ago, that girl was defeated in seconds by my sister."

"Ten-chan's no slouch either." Naruto added. "Going up against Temari-chan in those preliminaries was just bad luck. Besides, her _real_ competition is going to be Sasuke."

He didn't bother mentioning that his little sister-figure was adopted, and in all likelihood came from civilian parents as well.

In the stands below them, Tenten sat with her father, the congratulations of some viewers adding a warmth to her cheeks that had nothing to do with the heat of the desert.

"You did well." Higurashi said as he saw her, motioning for Tenten to sit beside him.

"Thank you, otou-san." Her smile was bright, and Higurashi couldn't help but match it with one of his own.

"You know me, girl. I wouldn't praise you unnecessarily, if you hadn't earned it. Pay attention to this next match, though...it will tell you who your next opponent is."

As the next hour passed, the two battles after Tenten's being prolonged by both combatants, it was finally time for Sasuke's match.

He stood in front of his opponent, a teenage boy from Amegakure, but his eyes were drawn to the Kage's viewing gallery. He knew that Naruto was watching. He would hate to disappoint.

With his Sharingan, he noticed a faint outline that he recognized despite its absence in his life. Though a Genjutsu tried to pass it off as nothing but a perched crow, Sasuke knew better than to believe what his senses perceived.

As the proctor began the match, Sasuke showed a vicious smile.

 _I won't let you down, brother._


	30. The Spirit of Fire

**Sorry about the time it's taken to get these last few chapters out; to make up for the shorter word count last chapter, this one is a little longer. The reason I've been taking a little longer is twofold: I've been doing more work at both of my jobs, and we're repainting/re-flooring the first floor of my house. Unfortunately, writing has to take a backseat to those things. Don't let it discourage you, though! I'll keep writing, and do my best to put out a new chapter as fast as I can.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. OneLunchMan: I agree, poor Shizune. No matter what, fate never seems to have much kindness in store for her, except in fic. Particularly fics which pair her with Naruto, though there's probably fewer fics of that category than there are in the NaruTayu archive. Probably fewer good ones, too. That's a bit beside the point, however...**

 **2\. gunslinger20121: Itachi onii-san sees _everything,_ so play nice. Also, a confession: every time I see your username, I think of McCree from Overwatch.**

 **3\. Generation Zero: Sasuke's skillset is a bit suspect, since in canon he tends to fall back into Naruto's trap of repeatedly using the same several jutsu. With Sasuke, however, it's relatively easy to explain: Orochimaru wanted Sasuke's body for his possession technique, not Sasuke himself as a student. Kakashi, on the other hand, values Sasuke as a comrade and a student who he can teach. The battle taking place in this chapter isn't much more than a glimpse at his skills, though it should give you something of an idea.**

 **4\. Noahendless: That's not something I've really thought about. I'm sort of writing this story and making it up as I go along, which means some things will make sense while others will take some buildup before they become clear. Itachi is one of my favorite characters, if not my favorite overall, and I'd enjoy giving him a happy ending...but I'll have to see where the story goes before I'll know whether or not I can do that.**

 **As always, thank you for your support!**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

As soon as the proctor's hand began to fall, when the Sharingan merely _perceived_ that the battle was about to start, Sasuke had vanished in action. Then, from above, came a barrage of flames that was similar to the black-fire dragon that Tenten's opponent had allowed to rain upon the arena...but unlike that technique, the _Housenka_ _no Jutsu_ was far more lethal in the right hands.

The shuriken contained within the fireballs soon fell behind, and as his opponent doged, he activated the _Futon: Kamikaze no Jutsu_ in order to guide each weapon separately. Of the eight shuriken Sasuke had thrown, six managed to tag his fellow Genin.

"I won't waste much time talking to someone so far beneath my level." Sasuke said. "Fight to kill me, if you want to be alive after I'm done beating you."

In the air, a seal hung at the height of the barrier Naruto had created.

"Raiton: Kaminari Fuin!"

The chakra swept into his body, condensing into a lightning bolt that erupted from his pointed index and middle fingers. The Ame-nin had time to perform his own Futon technique to defeat the jutsu, and Sasuke learned it as it was performed.

This was the power of the Uchiha.

"Beneath you? Don't make me laugh. Konoha, and its Will of Fire...they are nothing, to me or any of my countrymen. We are blessed, by God and his Angel, and his divine rain will protect me from you!"

He withdrew an umbrella, one that several shinobi in the stands recognized as one of Amergakure's signature weapons; the bamboo shoots making it were hollow, and spring-loaded with hundreds of senbon that could launch at the wielder's command. Even for the prepared, those umbrellas could mean death if the user was skilled.

He threw his umbrella skyward, and it launched all of its needles at a rapid pace. With his Sharingan, Sasuke saw them all: eight hundred and fifty senbon, coming straight for him. It reminded him of the mission to Nami no Kuni, and the battle against Haku...but he hadn't possessed the Sharingan's full three-tomoe state in that battle, having just awakened it in the Hyoton-wielder's killing chamber of mirrors.

With nothing but agility, Sasuke danced back and forth and avoided all the senbon sent his way, thanks to his eyes. Then, with another burst of speed, he had vanished.

"You believe that the rain will protect you?" A foot went to the Ame-nin's back as Sasuke reappeared, the attack powerful enough to make him cough up blood. "You believe that any of the dead gods, or their followers, can save you?"

Before his opponent could land, Sasuke appeared again, kicking him into the air.

"Kabuki." Sasuke said, appearing under his opponent's prone body. His arms and legs moved in tandem, twisting to strike as hard as he could.

An axe kick to the gut finished the Shishi Rendan, and Sasuke stood up.

"The water of life cannot touch me. The acid in the thundercloud will never reach my heart. I am the last of my line, the soul of the Uchiha, and there is a man I am sworn to kill. We do not believe in Konoha's Will of Fire. To awaken the Sharingan is to forsake that path...we are the victims of the Curse of Hatred. There is a reason that we remained loyal to Konoha, however: our protector is the same, and the water that your god causes to fall from the sky is nothing before him. I am that guardian, Hi no Seishin, and this..."

He raised his hand, the desert sun high overhead as he looked to the place where a crow sat watching.

"...is my blessed rain."

Spears of flame formed in the sky, shooting down to strike his enemy. Sasuke watched the burning lances fall, saw each one strike his target, but never took his eyes off of the crow that was Itachi.

Nobody needed to pretend that the boy from Amegakure had survived. A cold silence fell over the arena until the proctor spoke.

"The victor is Uchiha Sasuke of Konohagakure. There will be a thirty-minute recess before the next round begins."

As Sasuke watched, the crow cawed twice, flapping its wings and casting him in its shadow as it soared between him and the sun. He understood the meaning behind Itachi's action, almost too perfectly.

 _You have a long way to go before you reach me, little brother._ _I'll be waiting for you._

* * *

"The Uchiha...are truly fearsome." E said. "When that boy grows up, he'll be one of the strongest shinobi in your village, and the world."

"Itachi was born in a time of war, with a kind heart. Sasuke was born in a time of peace, with a heart sunken to the depths of pain. While his brother's genius status is deserved, and he's easily the most powerful ninja I've ever met...Sasuke is the one I'm more afraid of." Naruto said.

"Either way, it's the end of the first round." Tsunade noted. "All three of Konoha's Genin have advanced, as well as two of Kiri's, one of Suna's, and one of Kumo's. You seem to be at a disadvantage, Raikage-dono."

"Only if you believe that quantity outweighs quality." E said. "I doubt that he'll win the tournament, since he's probably going to go up against the Uchiha at the end of it, but he'll prove himself in the next match."

"You seem awfully confident." Mei quipped, taking one of Gaara's hands in her own before rubbing her thumb across the back of his knuckles. "Chojuro-kun is a candidate for the next generation of the Shinobigatana Nananin Shu."

"And don't forget, whichever of them wins will have to face the winner of this next match. Ten-chan's going to be the one to fight Sasuke next, unless he loses." Naruto reminded them.

There had been a double-knockout in the round following Tenten's, meaning that she got an automatic bye in the second round. The Suna and Kumo Genin fighting had burned up all their chakra, and while the Kumo-nin had won, she'd passed out immediately afterward and been labeled as unfit to continue. Still, in all likelihood, she would be getting a promotion at the end of the tournament. The two things that the Raikage looked for in his ninja were power and dedication, and that kunoichi had shown both in fighting to the last of her ability in order to complete her mission.

The road of a ninja was not one for the faint of heart.

Naruto thought back to the orphan he'd met on the way to that diner in the slums. Hiiro, hadn't that been his name? _Naruto_ Hiiro. The gift of a name, from one street rat to another...Naruto hoped that, one day, he and Hiiro would cross paths again. Whether as opponents on a mission, or as allies against a greater enemy, the Kyuubi Jinchuriki was excited to think about it. Perhaps, in that gutter, he had found the diamond sharp enough to pierce his heart.

Eyes wide, and a manic grin on his face, Naruto turned and walked away. Maybe he could help Sakura with something before her next bout began? She was strong, brutally so, but she lacked a certain finesse that Sasuke and Kakashi had. Naruto could respect, and identify, with that; it didn't have to look pretty, as long as it worked. That philosophy was evident in everything Naruto stood for, from his Taijutsu forms to his battle tactics to the sword he'd strapped to his back.

Alternatively, he could just sit in the general stands with Tenten and Team Seven, but he enjoyed the vantage that the Kages' observation box gave him.

* * *

"The second round of this third exam is now underway. Haruno Sakura of Konohagakure versus Taiso Renji of Sunagakure! Do you have any reason why a fight should not take place?"

"No." Both combatants said.

"Well then...hajime!"

Both Genin moved forward at once, dual punches to the face sending both backward.

"Good hit." Renji said, rubbing his cheek.

"Yours was better." Sakura said.

"Futon: Kyofu Yoshiki no Jutsu!"

Sakura aimed another punch at her opponent, but a gust of wind swept her arm aside before she was given a trio of blows; Renji balled his fist before hitting her with a backhanded strike, immediately followed by a strong returning slap. Unguarded as she was, it was easy for Renji to jump and shove his knee into her gut. Sakura stumbled backwards, winded, and Renji pressed the offensive he'd been given.

The left hook went into the right hand's straight punch, blood leaking from Sakura's lips as the assault continued. Right haymaker to left snap kick, left elbow thrust to a headbutt.

He just kept whaling on her...and as he continued, his movements became slower. It wasn't that he was tired; he felt perfectly fine. However, Sakura managed to move out of the way of one punch, and Renji failed to correct himself.

""Difficult to move, isn't it?" Sakura said, medical chakra running between her hands and the areas where she'd been hit. "Good for you, for not worrying about hitting a girl. Unfortunately, the paralytic poison in your system right now is absorbed through the skin. When I hit you back, and you rubbed your cheek..."

Just as the proctor was about to call the victor, Sakura felt her opponent's fist connect with her forehead.

"You think paralysis is enough to stop my body? My Kyofu Yoshiki isn't an offensive technique. Even if I were to die, it would keep making my body move until my enemies were defeated. It's relatively easy to learn that you're the Hokage's apprentice, so it stood to reason that you'd be adept with medical jutsu or poisons...and since you chose one that's not only nonlethal, but leaves me fully conscious, I can keep fighting."

He didn't need a great amount of finesse, only power and freedom of movement. Hovering inches off of the ground, Renji went back to pummeling Sakura.

"Kindness is not a weakness. Kindness to your enemies, on the other hand..." He said. "You could have chosen a poison that would leave me unconscious, one that would incapacitate or even kill me. Instead, you chose to paralyze me, because that has less permanent effects and can be cured at leisure. That sort of thinking will get you killed, one day."

With one final strike, another backhanded punch that sent Sakura into the ground hard enough that she bounced back into the air from it, the pink-haired Genin from Konoha passed out.

"The victor is Taiso Renji of Sunagakure."

The crowd went wild, enjoying the feeling of something resembling a home-team win as well as the end to Konoha's dominance in the tournament. With six Genin left, Konoha and Suna both had two, while Kumo and Kiri each had one still able to fight...and one of them would be eliminated in the next round.

* * *

"The wind rises." Gaara intoned. "Though fire feeds off of the oxygen in the air, a strong enough gust will snuff out any blaze."

"She fought like I would have in her position." Tsunade said. "Between allies, even one death can create mistrust and begin the cracks that will end with the dissolvement of friendship. As it turns out, though, her opponent had a countermeasure."

"Will he need an antidote?" Gaara asked.

"No, the dusting that Sakura put on her gloves should go out of his system in about five minutes."

"That's awfully prepared of her." Mei said. "I suppose it just goes to show that you've taught her well, Hokage-dono."

"That girl...her whole team, really. If anyone could genuinely surpass the Sannin, it would be them. Familiarize yourselves with their names, my friends." Tsunade smirked. "Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto. Mark my words, those three will go down in history together."

"Speaking of which, what happened to Naruto?" E asked. "He hasn't come back."

"He's probably fine." Tsunade said. "You've all seen him in action, he can handle himself."

 _Just in case, though..._

"Yugao, can you look for Naruto? It's probably nothing, but he was gone for the entire match."

"I'll look, but I couldn't tell you how well it'll work."

At six years old, without any training, Naruto had been able to evade detection by full squads of Anbu. By the time he'd graduated from the academy, nine years later, he had been able to outpace them as well. There was nowhere he couldn't run to, and no place he couldn't hide in. If Naruto didn't want to be found, then he would not be found.

Kakashi and Yamato both had their comm-links enabled. Though the crow in the sky had made her nervous, Yugao also felt safer knowing that Itachi was here...even if it was just a clone, or a very strong henge. It was like their team was together again, even though one of them happened to be the most dangerous nukenin that Konoha had ever allowed outside of their borders.

 _"Yamato, Kakashi, be ready."_ She said into her commlink, and the two beeps she heard in response were enough of an affirmative. She looked right at the crow above the stadium, and turned to leave.

"I'll come with you." Zabuza said, standing up. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

* * *

"Oh, you have _got_ to be fucking joking." Naruto groaned. "You're the same clowns that were in Kumo. Wasn't the whole idea that you weren't ready to start hunting us yet?"

"Well, yes and no." The man who Tayuya had fought in Kumogakure, Kakuzu, said. "You've put us in a bit of a bind, though. Your Biju is the one that will be sealed last, but you're also the most dangerous Jinchuriki of all."

"We came up with a solution, though." Kisame said. "Pein-sama can embalm you after we kill you, which means as long as we leave your seal intact the Kyuubi won't escape."

"I hope you're ready, kid. Jashin, my god, will finally forgive me for letting all those other people live!"

But where was Itachi? Not that Naruto relished the thought of getting flattened by the older Uchiha brother's power again, but the quartet had been in Kumo and now three of the four were standing before him in Suna.

"Oh, no." Naruto said, looking at both of his opponents with visible faces as they smiled. "He's right behind me, isn't he."

He turned his head, and there Itachi was.

"Son of a bitch. Is there no such thing as the concept of a fair fight? Fine, then. See if you can get me before I make it into the desert. Because, I promise, once I've made it out there..."

Chakra rolled off of Naruto, twisting around him in the shape of a fox's face.

 **"...I'll kill you one by one."**

With that as his warning, Naruto used the _Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu._ Twenty-seven versions of Naruto dispersed, some illusory and others real. The Akatsuki members ignored all the ones charging at them. Who, without a death wish, would willingly rush head-long into a fight with four S-class nukenin?

That was the logic Naruto had counted on, and he kept running. Scrambling over the village walls, he made it into the sand dunes surrounding Suna.

This was where the real battle would take place.

* * *

"No trace of him." Zabuza said. "You don't think he could..."

The vile chakra of the Kyuubi washed over the former nukenin as he trailed off, and he looked to Yugao knowingly. They arrived in time to see Naruto create his clones, an army of one teenager against four world-renowned murderers.

 _"Kakashi-senpai, Yamato-kun...we're going to need help."_

"Kisame is mine." Zabuza snarled. "He and I have a score to settle."

 _"Is Itachi there?"_ Kakashi's voice came in.

 _"Yes."_

 _"I'll deal with him."_

 _"There's two more, I'll need to know more before I can tell you who to engage, Yamato."_

 _"I'm en route."_ Yamato said across his comm-link.

The two Anbu from different nations vanished in a simultaneous _shunshin,_ reappearing on Sunagakure's wall, where they saw something that they'd never encountered.

Naruto, dodging every attack from three of the four ninja, seeming to play the rope-a-dope game with the desert's shifting dunes. Itachi was nowhere to be seen.

"You would do better to focus on the world around you, not just before you." His voice came from behind them, spooking them both.

Zabuza, sensing the tension, used another _shunshin_ to take him to the desert floor, and make his way toward Naruto.

"Itachi..." Yugao growled, turning around.

"You're as beautiful as ever, Yugao."

"Don't you dare try to act friendly, Kinslayer." She hissed. "Your heart is as cold and dead as the home you left your brother."

"That hurt, Yugao. An old teammate can't make small talk to pass the time? I was even nice enough, over our shared history, to warn you about my location."

"And we all know how well your _kind-heartedness_ worked out."

"Do you blame yourself for my defection? Do you believe that if Team Ro had committed the massacre as one, then we would still be the way we were? No...Neko. I know that Hayate is dead. I'm sorry that I couldn't do anything about it."

"What would you know of losing your loved one? Of having them ripped away from you? What could you _possibly_ know about-"

"Grief?" Itachi interrupted her. "I grieve every day. Their dying faces are burned into my memory, thanks to these accursed eyes. I grieve for them, for Sasuke, for the village and myself. The first victim of the massacre was Izumi."

"You...no. The girl you loved. Why?"

"Because those were my orders, and I couldn't obey them. When she died, I was able to harden my heart and follow through."

"You're still Itachi. You don't want war...you want redemption. Those two are your keys to it, aren't they? Naruto and Sasuke."

"They are what they choose to be." Itachi's cold eyes looked at her, his Sharingan spinning slowly. "You may want to go down there and help Naruto, though. He's the centerpiece binding the four nations together, and if I'm right...no, that's a story for another time."

"This isn't over, Itachi."

"Please, Yugao...you only ever knew me as Karasu. Even if you won't respect the person who I have become, can you not honor the memory of the boy I was?"

"You died with your clan. The thing that stands before me is the corpse of a madman who lost his heart to the darkness." After she spoke, she chose to perform another _shunshin_ as well, joining Zabuza and Naruto.

He had said her lover's name. That was the first time anyone had, in a long time. Everybody danced on eggshells around her, _Jiatsu_ _Tsukiken,_ the Suicidal Moon Blade. She hadn't gained the first word of that moniker until after her boyfriend, Hayate, had died. She'd grown tired of the distance everybody used with her, uncertain if the supposedly crazed Anbu would snap and attempt to kill them.

Itachi was too smart for his own good, she thought to herself as she moved in against Kakuzu. He was still too nice.

She would use this battle to clear her head.

* * *

"She wasn't very nice."

"It couldn't be helped. More than anything, I want to come back home...but not yet. Not until that man reveals his hand. If I have to, I will kill myself to achieve that goal."

"The masked man who-"

"Who unsealed the Kyuubi from Naruto's mother. The one who made him an orphan, who robbed the village of their Yondaime. He is a member of the Akatsuki, and I will give you your revenge."

The Will of Fire, and the Curse of Hatred, did not have to be mutually exclusive. Though he had been born and taught about the former, Kakashi understood that he would be mired deeper within his quest for vengeance until he died.

He swore on his _Raikiri,_ he would avenge his sensei and lead the man's son to a world of peace.


	31. Conclusion of the Chunin Exams

**Two chapters in two days...it feels good to be back at this pace. Last chapter, to my knowledge, is the highest-reviewed in this fic so far, sitting at 9 reviews compared to the usual 4 or 5. Thanks!**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. Noahendless: No problem, man. I try to respond to most/all of my reviews that aren't just, "great job, keep it up," or, "please continue," etc.; those reviews are more than welcome, I'm glad to know that people appreciate my work, but there's not a whole lot to respond to. If you have any comments or criticism, or the like, then feel free to share it.**

 **2\. Drake Vallion: Thanks for the kind words! I've always tried to provide quality, though if you look back at earlier fics of mine then you'll see that I've drastically improved since before I joined this site. Updating this fast is something that never happened prior to this fic, but I enjoy it just as much as the rest of you do. I like being able to write this much, this fast. Hell, I put out 100k words in a month...that's gotta count for something, right?**

 **3\. OneLunchMan: Friend, I've been on this site for far longer than my profile lists my join date; I've been around here since...fuck, when was I starting middle school? 2003-04? Somewhere around there, I can't remember. I'm old as balls. Come hell or high water, I'll still be here in my little rarepair corner. I'll get to the last part of your review after I've finished responding to the others, in a minute.**

 **4\. gunslinger20121: I actually play Junkrat or Hanzo most of the time, though I'm pretty good with too...I prefer Junkrat, though. Just something about blowing the fuck out of everything, and the _wheel._ The wheel is god.**

 **5\. blood-hybrid-of-darkness96: Thanks! I'm always looking to improve, so if you ever notice a typo that's slipped by me, (which happens a bit more often than I would like,) feel free to mention it; I don't want to get away with giving my readers mistake-riddled work.**

 **6\. Guest: It is, and it isn't. Kurama doesn't like, or trust, Naruto, but he _has_ earned its respect. That doesn't stop Kurama from wanting to take over Naruto's body, and use him as a medium for the world's obliteration out of its sense of victimization and a desire for vengeance, but respect is better than nothing at all.**

 **Now, as OneLunchMan has now offered twice, I'll put it up to you all: should I set up a for this story, and others like it?**

 **I told him before that I am both uncomfortable asking for money but too poor to say that I don't want it. However, if enough of you are like-minded and are willing to give me money for writing this fic and potentially others like it...I'd have no reason to say no to that.**

 **At the very least, give it some thought?**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"It's been a long time, Zabuza." Kisame said, hefting the Samehada on his shoulder.

"Funny, I don't feel like it's been long enough. If you hadn't interfered, I would have killed Yagura and we could have lived in peace." Zabuza lowered the Kubikiribocho into a low, two-handed stance.

The two swordsmen traded blows, their massive blades crashing against one another.

"Peace?" Kisame snorted. "The Zabuza I knew didn't believe in peace. He believed that it was a ninja's destiny to use others, or be used. He was determined to never be used again!"

"I made peace with myself for my actions." Zabuza snarled, though his opponent blocked the brutal sweep he'd attacked with.

"But have you made peace with your son?"

The _O no Nai Biju_ and the _Kirigakure no Oni_ glared at one another.

"Those eyes...good, Zabuza. Just as intimidating as I remember. We were the strongest of the Seven, but we never did settle who was better."

"You're going to regret challenging me for the title."

"Just as much as you regret the role you played in that woman's death?"

That was the moment when Zabuza managed to break through Kisame's guard, the Kubikiribocho cutting deeply into Kisame's left side.

"There's no water for you to run toward." Zabuza snarled. "Nowhere to summon your sharks, no place for you to hide. I will kill you in this desert, and only the dead gods will remember your name."

"Big words for you. You can't use jutsu in this heat either, it's just Taijutsu and Kenjutsu for us."

A rough two-jab attack to the face sent Zabuza reeling, barely able to avoid the Samehada's shredding scales. The swords met three times, and then Zabuza smirked beneath his armor-tape mask. It was time to take a leaf out of Naruto's book, one that he'd used far before it became an integral part of his arsenal.

Reaching behind his back, Zabuza separated from his opponent and flung a Fuma shuriken in Kisame's direction. The over-large weapon curved to fall behind Kisame, who laughed.

"You really need to work on your aim, Zabuza." He said, charging forward to cut the ex-nukenin down.

The Samehada's aim was true, shredding its master's foe in half at the gut...only for the Kubikiribocho's head-hole to fall down around Kisame's neck, from behind.

"When did you have time to make a clone?"

"When you spun your sword in a circle, I followed its movements. One Kage Bunshin, and a henge to transform myself into that shuriken. Did you think my aim was that bad on accident? Good fucking riddance, you monster."

With a pull, the blade came backwards, slicing Kisame's head off.

"Wait a minute, what the..."

* * *

"Go to hell, you son of a bitch!" Hidan screamed, every swing of his scythe missing its intended target.

 **"What, and meet your _baby demon_ of a master?"**

The insult Gato had used against Zabuza almost two years ago had its intended effect, further enraging the silver-haired Jashinite priest. His movements became more predictable, every attack more easily avoidable than the last.

"How dare you insult Jashin-sama! He would eat you alive!"

Naruto's smirk was sickening, his toxic chakra cloak eating the air between both ninja.

 **"I'm the host of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, you mop-headed fuck."** He said. **"There's no greater god or demon than the one whose power I control. Your master is a fly compared to my strength...Zenton: Touritsu Juuryoku Jisei no Jutsu."**

The Kyuubi was in complete control of his arms for those few seconds, but it had communicated the name of the technique to Naruto.

It would be nice if he knew what the technique did, but knowing the Kyuubi's penchant for wanton destruction, and a jutsu named, "Inverted Gravitational Magnetism..."

 ** _Wonton destruction as well._** Yin Kyuubi said to him. Ramen apparently wasn't the only soup that the demon fox loved more than life itself.

Naruto sighed at that internal dialogue, but watched the proceedings as the man in front of him literally began to break apart. All at once, layers of skin unraveled and destroyed themselves, followed by muscles and bones and internal organs.

"What? No! I'm...immortal! Save me, Jashin-sama!"

The jutsu had stripped Naruto of a massive amount of chakra, eliminating his cloaked form and cutting him down to about a quarter of what he'd had before the second half of the Kyuubi had been sealed inside of him. This wasn't a technique that he could use more than once, though it seemed highly excessive.

 ** _He's undergoing complete obliteration on a subatomic level._** Yang Kyuubi informed him. _**Every cell in his body is being torn apart, the molecules that make them up are being ripped to pieces. The protons, neutrons, and electrons in every atom are dispersing into the air, one by one.**_

While the scientific jargon completely went over Naruto's head, he couldn't deny that it certainly _looked_ like the priest's body was repelling itself to destruction.

 _How the fuck do you come up with techniques like this? This would be impossible for-_

 ** _For anyone who's not a Biju, or the Jinchuriki of the Hachibi or myself. That's right. Do you understand what I meant when I said that you weren't ready for my more intensive techniques? Shaping land or moving objects is easy, all you have to do is possess enough chakra to push or pull something to a specific area or shape. Simultaneously destroying every single cell in a human body by way of nuclear fission? You have to split your chakra into more than thirty trillion equal amounts and invade every cell through osmosis before destroying them from the inside...it's a technique I created, but have never mastered._**

 _Never mastered? This seems pretty mastered to me._

 ** _Theoretically, I should be able to dissolve his body in an instant, followed by an explosion from the heat produced by the atomic destruction. As you can see, that's not happening. Also, I've eaten up the majority of my chakra with that jutsu, so you're on your own from here._**

So even for the Kyuubi, it was something of a one-use jutsu? That said a _lot_ about the amount of chakra it required.

As Hidan finished evaporating, atomic pieces drifting on the wind, Naruto set his sights on the last remaining Akatsuki member in the area and moved in to provide support for Yugao.

* * *

"The final match of the Chunin Exams will be between Taiso Renji of Sunagakure, and Uchiha Sasuke of Konohagakure." The proctor said. "Do either of you have a reason why you shouldn't fight each other?"

"No." Came the expected replies.

Chojuro had triumphed against his opponent, but their prolonged battle had left him weak to Renji's preserved strength. Sasuke had crushed his opponent in the second round, and then Tenten had forfeited in her bout against him. Now, the two Genin stood opposite from one another, waiting for the beginning to their long-awaited battle.

Sasuke wouldn't deny that he'd have enjoyed fighting against Sakura for the final match, as it would have given them a chance to show off, but he understood the politics at play here; Suna was in its own territory for these exams, and it was good for morale if a Suna ninja made it to the finals. It would be _great_ for their morale if a Suna ninja won the entire tournament, but Sasuke wasn't known for his kindness. He couldn't just throw the fight, not when he'd come so far. Not with his brother watching over him.

"Don't pull any punches just because our villages are allies. I won't hesitate to strike." Renji said.

"Then pray to the dead gods." Sasuke offered his advice. "They're the only ones in this world with any mercy."

"Hajime!" The proctor's hand came down, and the pair stood still.

Renji made the mistake of looking into Sasuke's eyes, and the young Uchiha had to resist the urge to manifest his Mangekyou and completely overwhelm him. He knew what happened every time he used the more advanced form of his eyes; each time he activated the Mangekyou, he became a little bit more blind.

That begged the question, how poor had Itachi's vision become? Was that why he used a crow henge, because a bird's eyesight was superior to his own vision as a human? Sasuke would have believed that.

Sasuke cast one Genjutsu after another, six layers atop of each other that left Renji standing still. He couldn't end this quickly. He had to put on a show, didn't he? It could only end with his victory, after all.

As Renji recovered from the illusions Sasuke had created, the Uchiha smirked. Their battle had barely started.

* * *

Kakuzu stood quietly on the sand for a moment, though his features began to change as he slumped to the ground. Three swords had struck him at once; Naruto's falx was buried in the front of his chest, Yugao's katana had gone through his belly, and the Kubikiribocho had cut up from Kakuzu's side to cut his heart in two.

The man who hit the desert dune he'd stood on, however, was not the same man that they'd been fighting seconds earlier.

"That happened with Kisame, too. What's going on? It was way too late to be a kawarimi." Zabuza said.

"I couldn't tell you exactly what the technique is, but it allows the user to take over a corpse and fight with a fraction of their chakra."

"So then this was a diversion?" Yugao asked.

"No. Their idea was that a four-on-one fight, even with all of them using reduced power, would be good enough odds that I died. Hell, Itachi on his own can turn me into a fucking pincushion with that level of restraint...where the hell is he?"

"Kakashi-senpai is taking care of him."

"I'm doing what now?" Kakashi asked from behind them, his head stuck in _Icha Icha Paradise Volume III: Love in the Lost Kingdom._ He turned the pages with fervor, wholly absorbed in the story despite having read it several times.

"Kakashi-senpai...what have I told you about reading those books?"

"Only to do it when you're around so that I can tell you where the best scenes are."

A left-handed punch to the top of his smokestack hair sent Kakashi crumpling to the ground.

"The legendary...left..." Kakashi groaned. "If you wanted to try some of the poses out with me, you could just say so, Yugao-chan."

Naruto and Zabuza looked at each other, then to the pair of Konoha Jounin, and back to each other. Nodding, they both disappeared in a _shunshin_ before they could watch the devastation that Kakashi had invited on himself; neither of them was willing to get in Yugao's way.

Hell hath no fury like a kunoichi bent on wholesale destruction.

* * *

Their battle so far had consisted of Sasuke throwing Genjutsu like they were going out of style, and Renji attempting to fight his way through them. For every two that the Suna-nin managed to break through, a third one stuck, and the illusions were piling up one by one.

Then, Sasuke decided it was time to make the fight one worth watching. That was why all these people were in the stands; they wanted to see a battle that was just as much showmanship as it was substantial.

"Katon: Bun'ya O Moyashi no Jutsu!" He called out.

Renji looked around to find the arena floor smoking as the clay beneath his feet cracked, small tongues of flame reaching up to kiss the bottom edge of the sky. The longer it went on for, the taller they would grow, and even Sasuke was wary of this technique; it surrounded them both, making any sort of movement risky, but it was more dangerous for Renji than Sasuke.

"Doton: Kama no Jutsu!" The Uchiha shouted, and the burning earth around his opponent rose to encase him.

The strategy was simple: immobilize Renji, then trap him. Finally, with nowhere for the Suna-nin to go, Sasuke felt that he'd won...or that he would win, after his next move. He let the flames climb a little higher, increasing the heat inside of the makeshift kiln he'd built around Renji.

"Raiton: Chidori." Sasuke hadn't used this technique since his battle with Naruto at the Valley of the End, and the familiar chirping comforted him.

He would aim for a nonlethal strike, but still one strong enough to make Renji pass out. It was bad politics to kill an allied ninja, particularly one as strong and respectable as the one Sasuke faced now; on top fo that, Sasuke genuinely respected Renji's strength.

As he rushed forward, his hand beginning to bite into the earthen wall that he'd made to trap his enemy, he heard Renji's voice.

"Futon: Tekidanhei no Nami!"

A series of explosions rocked the arena, the stone prison rupturing and sending both boys flying away. Sasuke took the impact of two explosive attacks though he managed to avoid the rock shards flying toward him; Renji, on the other hand, avoided most of the explosions but bore the brunt of the destroyed _Kama no Jutsu's_ shattered splinters.

Both Genin stood up again, panting and wheezing.

"I'd be worried if I ran into you when you were well-rested." Sasuke praised him, though a pain in his legs caused him to fall to one knee. "That was...ow. That was something."

"Ugh...dammit. You should have had me, though."

Renji glanced down at his side, placing a hand over his ribs, where a decently-sized outcropping of rock had gone through.

"Aw, fuck, I busted a lung. Hey, proctor, call the match. I'm gonna need a..."

Sasuke caught his opponent before he could fall on his side, which would have driven the heated shard further into Renji's chest. As a medical team came out, and carried the Suna-nin off on a stretcher, the proctor raised his hand.

"The victor of the match, and the Chunin Exams, is Uchiha Sasuke of Konohagakure!"

The crowd cheered, and Sasuke collapsed on the ground at the congratulations that enveloped his world. He was so, so tired.

 _Did you see me, tou-san, kaa-san? Did you see me, Itachi? I did it...I won._

Two years ago, Sasuke would have found it unfathomable that he would be catching up to Naruto, the twice-held-back student who failed tests on purpose. Now, however, he felt a little closer to bridging the gap between them. And, from there, he would close the distance between his strength and Itachi's. No doubt, if Naruto had been the one to proclaim his victory, he would have been hollering like he had when he'd sent Neji packing in their first Chunin Exams. He could still picture it now.

 _"I won! I shook the world! I shook the world! I shook the world!"_ The blond had screamed at the top of his lungs, laughing as he did a victory lap and danced for joy until the second match had been ready. _"I am the greatest!"_

It had made them all laugh off their amazement that he'd beaten the Hyuuga prodigy. Underneath it all, he was still the same Naruto afterwards that he'd been beforehand.

Now it was Sasuke's turn to bask in that limelight, having taken down the Taiso family's prodigal son and cemented his place as deserving of the Chuunin rank. For Suna's sake, and Renji's own, Sasuke hoped that his opponent would recover quickly.

It had been a good fight after all, one that was deserving of their championship match.

Still, Sasuke knew that Renji was actually the stronger shinobi between the two of them. The Suna-nin had fought brutally in all four of his matches, while Sasuke had easily won his first two and gotten a bye thanks to Tenten's forfeit when she'd been slated to fight him. If all truth was to be told, Tenten would have given him a run for his money as well, though that would have led to his defeat at Renji's hands. Renji was stronger, and a faster thinker, able to throw himself into a near-suicidal plan in order to avoid defeat. If Sasuke hadn't possessed the Sharingan, then Renji would have won regardless.

The other Genin's own offensive had worked against him, but his resolve was nothing to be doubted. Had he been able to push Sasuke any farther, the Mangekyou might have been a necessity in order to win. That particular skill, however, was one best left to the life-and-death battles he would have to face in the future; good ninjas were supposed to be like magicians, never revealing their secrets.

Sasuke looked up to the sky, and saw a crow fly away. Standing up, he gave a genuine smile for the first time in a long time.

 _Expect me like you expect your death to come back, brother. Expect me. I'm coming._

The oblivious crow flew away, into the sun and out of Sasuke's sight. Soon, it would be followed by an angel, the two making their way back to Amegakure to report their mission and its failure. There was one wound, however, that would make for a hard recovery; just as Itachi had been fully present in Kumo, so had Hidan been on the Akatsuki's mission to Suna. The priest of Jashin was dead and gone, his immortal spirit left to howl his fury on the blistering desert winds.


	32. Promotions, the New Mission

**Write again, write again, jiggety jog. Hope y'all are doing all right.**

 **Also, for the record, it took me about 20 years to figure out that the reason there's an apostrophe in, "y'all," is because Damn Yankee (TM) linguists apparently decided that the correct pronunciation was supposed to be, "yuh-ALL," as opposed to its actual pronunciation, which is exacly how the damn word is spelled without the apostrophe.**

 **Fucking Yankees.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. gunslinger20121: Eh, my reasoning was varied; one, while I'm great at using Hidan in the PVP games, he's fucking atrocious in canon and I wanted him gone the fuck out. Two, his death means there is now an open spot at the Akatsuki, which (along with Orochimaru's defection pre-canon) means that two spots are open for Tobi and Maya. Three, it wouldn't make sense to keep putting the same singular person (Itachi) in danger on every mission, especially considering that Hidan is really, truly immortal. I'm not convinced that his Edo Tensei in canon wasn't just a reassembling of his corpse parts that Shikamaru buried.**

 **But, I mostly did it because he's an asshole. Assholes get the shitty asshole treatment.**

 **2\. Drake Vallion: Yeah...we all start somewhere. It's not where you start with your level of craftsmanship in writing, it's how you go about improving it, because saying, "oh, I was better than you are now when I started," is basically like getting a five foot head start in a marathon. Sure, it counts for something right at the beginning, but after about ten seconds it doesn't mean jack shit. You feel me?**

 **3\. ForeverFallen76: I feel you. My problem is that while I dislike the fact that I've seen broken cinderblocks that weremore intelligent than canon Naruto, I also can't really stomach the idea of Naruto being a genius because it's just so...stupid, I guess, is the word I'm looking for? So a believable Naruto has to be not-quite-dumb, but with moments of extreme insightful clarity, or relatively intelligent with a moronic decision made every now and again. He's only human, after all.**

 **4\. Aaeru: Exams might as well be added to the list of reasons for my atheism. No benevolent god would allow them. Since you gave a long-ass review, I'm gonna split my response up here.**

 **Sasuke's Mangekyou was a difficult decision. The Sharingan is awakened and empowered by negative emotions, particularly grief and the feeling of loss. When Sasuke learned the truth of Itachi's life, that was when he awakened the Mangekyou in canon, because he discovered that he'd been living a lie for his entire life. I did the same thing, just...in a more tame environment.**

 **Tayuya's flashback/dream was done to showcase why she's having a hard time talking about what happened during her time with Orochimaru. By her own admission, she was around six years old when Orochimaru took her, (in this fic, at least,) and that means she had slaughtered a village full of innocent people before she learned how to read complex books or even know how to do the full range of what most people consider basic math. As the dreaming aspect may hint at, if you'll allow me the joke, she's haunted by her actions.**

 **Tenten is adorable and I will not be convinced otherwise.**

 **Crows will gather where civilizations endures; admittedly, a pigeon may have been a better choice, but to hell with pigeons, they beg for your food and then they shit all over your car in return. Besides, it's Uchiha [motherfucking] Itachi. The man could go stealth mode dressed in fluorescent pink and safety-vest yellow. Son of a bitch could eat Segata Sanshiro for breakfast.**

 **The Kyuubi is always vaunted as some deific spirit of nature who's unconquerable and insurmountable. I figured that I might as well give it reasons to be; like it said, landscaping is really just Kurama's equivalent to, "level one," on the scale of abilities. Kurama shows up, you get the FUCK outta dodge unless you want to die.**

 **Renji was something of an enigma, even as the guy writing him. Sakura won because she tried to be nice and not kill, which is something I set Sasuke up to have no qualms about vis a vis his brutal murder of the Genin from Amegakure. Renji beating Sakura was also all about him beating her at her own game, using his fists instead of his jutsu arsenal...because the Sharingan is always watching, waiting, ready to copy any technique it sees. CH34+ Y0UR W4Y 2 P0W3R W/ L33+ H4X.**

 **Also, I've been trying to set up, "the dead gods," as a legitimate thing, and I'm considering a plot point regarding them, though it has less to do with why they're dead than it does about what happened after they died.**

 **My NGE joke was beautiful, but I'll admit that it was absolutely _way_ too meta for just about anyone to catch. If any of you have ever read Homestuck, you'll know that Hussie is where I got the idea for hidden shit like that. I fuckin' love hyper-meta stuff like that.**

 **5\. OneLunchMan: ...and god said unto Abraham, "Come forth and receive eternal life," but Abraham came fifth and won a review response, because god and I have a few things in common, such as how little sleep I get thinking about lives that aren't mine. My friends are some needy people, lmao. And, just now, I realized that the reason "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," is because women are generally the ones subjected to advances, so one who makes them herself will naturally be turned down by many people, (according to the logic at the time of that saying, which is idk when,) which gets her more heated than a dudebro whose waifu figurine got delayed from shipping for 6 months.**

 **6\. Lord Bedhead: Go to the yuri, my friend. It beckons, and you must answer the call. Godspeed. Thanks for that typo notification, I'll go back and fix it when I wake up tomorr...today. It's almost 4:30 AM and I need to be up in an hour and a half. Fuck my life.**

 **I will say that I don't have much _antagonism_ planned beyond the Akatsuki, but be prepared for a complete mindfuck somewhere down the road because, my son, it's time for me to make things interesting.**

 **7\. Noahendless: The way that Suiton jutsu work in canon, without a direct water source available, (as far as I'm aware,) is that the user pulls moisture out of the air and uses their chakra to increase the volume of liquid available. deserts are notorious for their lack of rain, and the arid climate means that humidity isn't something that exists. Ergo, my reasoning was that since there's basically no water in the ground or the air, they wouldn't be able to make Suiton jutsu except by sweating the hell out of themselves...which would take way too long, in all honesty. Particularly for two trained individuals who're able to wield their over-sized swords one-handed and with supreme ease. I'm not saying you have to agree, but that was my thought process and I'll be sticking with it for continuity; anyone who wants to do Suiton techniques in the desert will need to have water of some kind on their person.**

 **For that one smartass who's out there somewhere, _no._ That does _not_ mean that they will be making Suiton techniques out of their piss. That's both disgusting and impractical.**

 **Thanks, as always, for your continued readership and support! It's past 4:30 AM now, and I need to be up at 6 AM to go to work at 7 AM. Is anybody willing to switch shifts with me?**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, Jie Tenten. It's my honor to award you three the rank of Chunin." Tsunade said.

The assembled Konoha shinobi clapped politely, as Tayuya and the Uzumaki followed along.

"With this promotion come the abilities to lead shinobi squads, take on more difficult missions, and gain the possibility of advancing to Jounin rank." She continued. "Inside of these scrolls are your new flak jackets. Sasuke, Sakura, yours will also contain a mission dossier that will remain confidential until its completion. May the Will of Fire burn brightly inside of you."

She saluted, and the three fresh Chunin reciprocated.

"At ease. Now, it's time to celebrate!"

The extended group moved out from their private room, into the reception hall where Suna was hosting its farewell party for all those who had participated in the Chunin Exams.

"Naruto, can I have a word with you in private?" Tsunade asked, grabbing him by the shoulder.

"Uh, sure. I'm pretty hungry though, so..."

Tsunade rolled her eyes as Naruto stared longingly at all the food waiting for the people in line. With every moment, that line got longer, keeping Naruto from getting the food any time quickly.

"It's not going to take long. It's about your training trip."

"Huh? Ero-sennin said that was over."

"It is. I have a mission for you, though...consider it the back end of your training, though, as it'll keep you away from Konoha for at least another year and a half."

"Alright. What else? You wouldn't keep me by myself just for that kind of news."

"I'm promoting you to Jounin, effective immediately."

"You're what? That...hey, wasn't that Ero-sennin's idea?"

"Every once in a while, he has good ideas. Shocking, I know, but true nonetheless. You've earned this promotion."

"And...my mission?"

"Jiraiya mentioned that you had a talent for logistics hidden away in that big pumpkin-head of yours. You'll be leading a squad of up to six ninja internationally. Two of your squad-mates have already been chosen for you: Sasuke and Sakura. It's up to you to select the remaining one to three ninja on your team. You'll have up to one week before needing to begin-"

"Tayuya, Neji, Hinata." He said, cutting Tsunade off.

"No, really, this is something to think about seriously-" The Hokage didn't get to finish.

"Neji, Hinata and Sakura are all close-range Taijutsu fighters, and Hinata showed talent as a salve-maker during my Chunin Exams. If that's blossomed at all, she'll have become a decent medic, which is a good profession for her since she's gentle and has the Byakugan. Sasuke and I are both all-range fighters, while Tayuya is a mid-long range fighter who prefers to play a support role, which Sasuke can also do thanks to his Sharingan and Genjutsu abilities. We'd have at least two people on our team to fight from any given range, two medics, two supporters...and we'd have a two-man edge over most common shinobi teams due to the usual cap of four. Also, we'll have two Byakugan users who can compensate for each others' blind spots."

"I...god damn it. You don't even know what the mission is going to be, and you manage to think this up that quickly?"

"Well, there's another level to it. Tayuya and I are in a relationship, Sasuke and Sakura might as well be, with how hard she tries, and...disgusting and disturbing as I find it, Neji and Hinata are supposedly engaged, right? Or, they're going to be."

"Yes, that's right. So, not only did you manage to come up with a fully-rounded team on the spot, but you've thought about the politics behind their relationships as well. You, the supposed future Hokage, with your would-be wife-to-be. The Uchiha scion, and the Hokage's apprentice. The Hyuuga heiress, and the strongest member of their clan in living memory."

Neji had already made Jounin, based purely off of his skill with the Hyuuga clan's Jyuken and its related jutsu. When you have a big enough hammer, anything can be a nail...and Neji, with his all-seeing eyes, was adept at finding nails. While most people who knew were disturbed by the idea of first cousins marrying, let alone cousins who were born from identical twin fathers and were therefore genetic half-siblings, it was also a known practice for large clans like theirs to have inter-clan marriages.

"So...can I go eat now?" Naruto pleaded, making Tsunade huff in mild irritation.

"Yes, Naruto. You can go eat now."

"Awesome! Thanks, obaa-chan!"

She watched him run off with a laugh bubbling out from his lips, a serene smile on her face as she hung back for a few more moments. Striding out, she soon took her own place in the line waiting for food; just because she was the Hokage didn't mean that she got to cut in line! Only seeing him from the back, however, she couldn't look at the drops of blood filling his sclera. She didn't see the fangs that he displayed when he laughed.

* * *

The journey back to Konoha went quickly enough, a drawn-out farewell between Naruto and his international friends taking up most of the time they'd spent remaining in Suna.

Sitting in the lounge outside of the Hokage's office, he looked down at the stone in his hands that was bigger than his head; Tsunade wa dealing with paperwork to register Oboro, Rei and Kouga, as official citizens of Konoha. With her away, he had chosen to unseal it for the moment. It seemed unnatural, the shining cobalt almost feeling like it was dancing inside of a shell.

"What's that?" A voice asked, and Naruto was startled enough that he nearly dropped it.

"Nothing." He sealed it away again, putting the scroll inside of his jacket pocket which had its own storage seal inside.

All of his storage seals had the same internal matrix and design, which meant that the space they shared was all the same; even if his jacket was destroyed, he had another seal prepared somewhere else, or he could just make another one.

"That sounds like a lie, Naruto." Kakashi said, and the blond could tell that his former sensei was grinning beneath his jaw-mask. "Lies aren't very appreciated in the ninja world."

"It's from Uzushio. I don't intend to bring that place back to life, but it's my ancestral homeland, so...I took a souvenir. No matter what, I'll always have _something_ with me."

"Awful nostalgic of a man who's proud that he came from nothing. Or has that changed since you've been away? You seem much more aware, and stronger, but...more agressive. Unhealthily so."

"I can control more of the Kyuubi's chakra. It's a side effect of loosening the seal." And fucktupling the size of his chakra reserves.

"You're not telling me everything. Your breathing is a little shallower, your heart rate is speeding up as you decide how much of the truth to say. I won't order you to tell me, I'm not your superior anymore...but don't think you're off the hook."

"Ugh...fine. I removed the seal for a minute during the Kirigakure Rebellion, and it's given me problems. Thankfully, the effects shouldn't get any worse."

"There. Was that so hard?"

"No, Kakashi-senpai."

"Senpai, huh? Only my old Anbu team calls me that."

"Well, maybe that's what you can teach me. I don't need much in the way of jutsu or physical exercise, but Anbu techniques are..."

"Forbidden to anyone who's not in the corps." Kakashi finished where Naruto trailed off. "And the Anbu are picked at the discretion of the Hokage, so you'll never get a chance to access our techniques until you become the Hokage yourself."

"Aw..."

"Also, be wary. If my instincts are right, you're going to get a new team member. Probably someone from Ne."

 _"Naruto, come in."_ Tsunade's voice was muted through the thick wood of her office doors, but Naruto's keen hearing managed to understand the words.

"See you later, Naruto. Don't worry about my promise, I'll definitely make you a ninja worthy of the old man's hat."

Not Tsunade, but the Sandaime. Naruto remembered Jiraiya telling him that many higher-up ninja in Konoha didn't hold the Godaime in high esteem compared to her beloved predecessors, but something that blatant...either it was a direct barb at Tsunade when he knew Anbu were watching, or it was meant as encouragement because Naruto had grown up with the Sandaime in charge.

Either way, Kakashi vanished in a _shunshin,_ and Naruto moved forward to stand in Tsunade's office. As the doors swung shut behind him, he realized he wasn't alone with her. One, he recognized as Danzo. The other, he didn't know. It took all of his self-control to hold himself back from murdering the man who'd killed his grandfather; though the wound was far older than Naruto, thirty-eight years gone, he remembered the Genjutsu that had greeted him in Uzushiogakure.

"You called." Naruto stated.

"Yes. There's been a slight change of plans." Tsunade said. "Danzo is attempting to integrate some of his Ne Anbu into our regular shinobi ranks, and with your permission, he'd like to add one of them to the team you'll be taking, bringing you to a total of six ninja under your command."

"At that point, though, why not add one more and leave me in command of two teams? I mean, no offense, but I chose my team based on my knowledge of their skills and capabilities, and a team of six shinobi is already pushing limits on what could or could not be considered an act of war. If you add one more, all under one person's command, then all that'll keep us from a diplomatic disaster is my relationships with three of the other Kage."

"Is that a refusal?" Tsunade asked.

"No, it's not that I'm unwilling. I'm just worried about what the effects might be, due to the little bit you told me about this mission beforehand. I also have no clue about this guy's talents or shortcomings, and the unknown too often leads to...bad consequences."

"Your caution speaks well of you." Danzo said, turning to look at Naruto with his good eye. "Obedient, but probing, you seek to learn everything you can so that it can't be used against you. Worry not, Uzumaki Naruto, there is no hidden agenda here. The boy is about your age, and I can personally attest to his skill being roughly on par with your own."

"'The boy?' Does he have no name?"

"My name changes with each mission." The white-skinned teen said, an eerie smile framed by thin black hair that was kept short and neat. "For this one, I have been informed that you may call me Sai."

"Alright...Sai. What are your specialties?"

"My primary focus is ink-based Ninjutsu, generally through the visage of animals. However, I am also proficient in Taijutsu and highly skilled in Kenjutsu, and I have the ability to employ rudimentary Fuinjutsu."

"A close- to mid-range fighter, then?"

"Yes."

The blank feeling that Naruto got with every sentence that Sai finished was bothering him. It was like Sai had no emotions at all.

"Are you aware of the mission and its parameters?"

"No. Tsunade Hokage-sama was just about to tell me, when she decided it prudent that you be here as well."

Naruto turned to look at the aforementioned woman as she sat behind her desk.

"Well, then, what is it?"

"You're going to be running around the Elemental Nations and destroying Orochimaru's bases. While I'm sure that most of them are abandoned, and he's not planning to use them anymore, I think it's a good idea to limit his activity as much as possible. You are not to engage with ally or enemy shinobi unless a battle is unavoidable, and under no circumstances are you to go head-to-head with Orochimaru himself. He's too dangerous, even for you. Casualties are to be avoided at all costs, but a mercy killing is permissible in the event that Orochimaru captures one of you alive and rescue becomes a non-option."

"You don't need to worry about rescuing me." Sai offered. "I will be able to handle myself."

"I'll ask one more time, Naruto. First, are you certain about your choice of teammates for this mission? Second, do you or do you not consent to Sai being placed as an additional member of your team?"

"I'm sure. And...I consent. As a sign of good faith, I'll trust you, Sai. I can't promise that the others will, but if you're as good as you and Danzo-san have made you out to be, then their mistrust will fade quickly."

"Thank you, Taicho." Sai said. "I won't disappoint you."

Though the words had no feeling to them, Naruto was a little less worried about that than he'd been a few minutes ago.

"I'll call your chosen squad here. I've already notified their families and teams that they'll be on an extended mission."

* * *

After several minutes of waiting, and Danzo's departure, Naruto and Sai were joined by Tayuya, Sasuke, Sakura, Hinata and Neji. The seven ninja stood before the Hokage's desk, and Tsunade gave them a moment before beginning to speak.

"I've called you all here to ask you to participate on a mission." She said. "Your acceptance is voluntary, but you were all specifically requested by name, by your commander."

"Which would be Naruto, or our unknown compatriot, I assume. They were both here before Hinata-sama and I, and we were otherwise the first to arrive." Neji said.

"You're correct. Uzumaki Naruto received his Jounin promotion, and to celebrate, I'm sending him on a mission as the commander of a team. A couple of you already know the particulars, but for the rest of you...the mission will be to travel around the Elemental Nations and destroy hidden bases or emergency safehouses used by Orochimaru and his subordinates. What do you say?"

"I'm in." Sasuke said, quickly followed by an affirmative nod from Sakura.

"I will go if Hinata-sama chooses to do so." Neji declared.

"Anywhere that he's going, I'm going too." Tayuya said in a matter-of-fact tone, one arm wrapping around the small of Naruto's back to nestle between his gut and the side of his arm.

"I-I'll go, if I was really requested..."

"I asked for you, specifically." Naruto said, turning to smile at Hinata. "You're not going to be a burden."

Hinata ducked her head, embarrassed and attempting to hide her face.

"We're all in accord, then." Tsunade said. "You will leave at seven tomorrow morning. Naruto, before you go right now, I have a map that's marked with most locations of Orochimaru's bases...that we know of. If you come across more, your orders are to raid and destroy as quickly as possible."

Like that, it was decided. Naruto and his team would head out to begin their mission just a little after the break of day. There was still something else on their agenda that was equally important, however: food.

* * *

"Feels just like old times." Sasuke said, looking around the circular table that they sat at in the restaurant. "Well, mostly. What's up with you?"

"Me? I'm just here because the rest of you decided to be here." Sai said. "We're going to be spending a long time together, so I've been trying to understand your personalities and interactions in order to determine how I can best fit in. For example, Neji-san shows complete fealty to Hinata-san. Therefore, if I am around him, then I should not speak poorly of her. Similarly, if I insult Sasuke-san, then Sakura-san will likely be upset with me. Your emotions also show me what I will likely need to do during combat to best support you as individuals and as a team. For Sakura-san or either of the Hyuuga, I would be more useful as a long-range supporter. However, for Tayuya-san, I will need to commit to close-quarters fighting in order to allow her to activate her Genjutsu."

"What about Naruto and I?" Sasuke asked.

"Sasuke-san, you and I would be able to switch roles as necessary for the target at hand. And as for Taicho, I've read his file. Did you know he's called the Kage Hoiru for his accomplishments in defeating the current Kazekage a year and a half ago, and for killing the Yondaime Mizukage, Yagura?"

"I knew he did those things, I didn't think he got a special name for them."

"Defeating a Jinchuriki earns great fame, or notoriety. Defeating a Jinchuriki who becomes a Kage is highly noteworthy. Being a man who's beaten two Jinchuriki-turned-Kage in all-out battles is something that the world is bound to take notice of."

"Aw, stop, you're gonna make me blush. Hell, it's not _that_ impressive...right? Right?"

"Piss-for-brains, you pulled a meteor out of space and made a mountain out of the crater. You beheaded the Mizukage. You're fuckin' nuts, okay? What the hell would you call, 'impressive,' if that shit isn't?"

Naruto shrugged, though he remembered the atomic erasure of his enemy in Suna. The Kyuubi was an instrument of death, a weapon crafted to be artwork that could still fulfill its deadly purpose.

"Well, I impress myself every day when I wake up next to you." He grinned, and everyone else at the table groaned when Tayuya's fist met the back of his head.

"Shut the hell up, piss-for-brains. Who told you that you were allowed to say shit like that?"

"Nobody tells Uzumaki Naruto what to do."

"Well, Uzumaki Naruto had better learn to fuckin' listen when his girlfriend is talking to him, or else he's gonna end up tied with garrote wire and have a particularly rusty tanto shoved up his ass."

"Don't bother trying to reason with him, Tayuya-san." Neji said. "This is the same person who mixed gorilla glue with silly string and put the mixture in a bottle of cheese whiz."

"Iruka-sensei's face was _priceless!_ Oh, man...that was one of my better ones."

"There was also the time when you used a lifetime-warranty spray-paint to turn the Hokage Monument into a series of disembodied heads from the _Fire Emblem_ franchise." Neji continued. "Making the Shodaime into Sigurd was done in very poor taste."

"Hey, that's no fair. I was just staying true to the game's events! The Shodaime died from burn wounds at the Valley of the End."

"Then, please explain to me, the time you switched the entire academy's bathroom hand-soap dispensers with honey."

"That was never proven to be me." Naruto defended himself. "You need reasonable suspicion and probable cause in order to finish me off, motherfuckers. Otherwise, my ass can't land in jail."

"And when every ramen shop in Konoha, that was not the Ichiraku family's, all suddenly suffered mechanical malfunctions over the course of a day."

"Piss-brain, when the _hell_ did you ever manage to pull this off?"

Naruto laughed, because he had no response. He didn't know how, he didn't want to know. All he understood was that he was Uzumaki, "motherfucking," Naruto, and the law could never touch him.


	33. Eyes in the Dark

**Well, I managed to do it. Ever notice how, on my days off, I manage to get chapters out before midnight? Weird, having all that time to dedicate to writing. Wish it could last forever.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. Aaeru: Those pranks? Well...let's just say that the Gorilla Whiz Incident was sort of a real thing. I once had a _terrible_ Philly cheesesteak that had cooked for so long that the cheese had caused the bread of the sandwich to fuse together, and I nearly broke a tooth. On _cheese._ It tasted like silly string smells, and it was molten hot, and I was fucking pissed. The honey-and-soap is basically just your classic, "switched the salt and sugar," but in a hygienic case rather than an edible one. As for the spraypaint...that's the introduction to the series. That's what the story opens on Naruto doing.**

 **Glorious bastard.**

 **Sai in this fic will probably be a little different from canon. Danzo said nothing to him about making friends or anything of the sort, so he's just...blank. I am going to give him a bit more backstory, though. In this chapter, even!**

 **Spoiling the game? Come on, how many people reading this story would download an SNES emulator and a _Genealogy of the Holy War_ ROM just to find out that I told them the truth? Besides, there's a whole half of the story beyond the end of Chapter 7. Does it really count as spoilers?**

 **SIDE NOTE: please play _Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War._ It's one of/arguably the most challenging entry in the series besides _Fates: Conquest_ on Lunatic/Classic mode. It's amazing. I love _Fire Emblem._ I am a sad, sad man who has devoted upwards of 20,000 hours to that series. I'm playing it right now.**

 **2\. Lord Bedhead: I answered the first part of this review in the one above. As for the second part...fluff is good. It's a weak area of my writing, in my opinion, but weaknesses need to be improved...so fluff will exist shortly, hopefully in the next chapter or two.**

 **3\. OneLunchMan: I have plans for Diet-Sasuke. Sai-et Sasuke. Is that pun too much of a reach? And, yeah, despite his...quirks...Sai is really the only sane artist that _Naruto_ has, as a series. I mean, off the top of my head, he's competing with Sasori and Deidara. That's a pretty easy win for Sai.**

 **Also, expecting deception from a Ne Anbu? I thought the rule was, "expect the unexpected," not, "understand the obvious." However, I think it's safe to say that you're not yet aware of exactly who's going to get deceived by him.**

 **4\. Kitsune (Guest): I take it you don't read my ANs, as I specifically stated in at least one, (though hell if I can find the chapter, I'm too lazy,) that incest isn't a thing I condone, even in a fantasy setting. Two people who share the same last name, getting married, gives me the proverbial heebie jeebies. It's not happening. Why else would I have set up other characters as having so much opposition to it, rather than acceptance?**

 **5\. Drake Vallion: Well, like I said, the Shodaime was Sigurd, from _Genealogy of the Holy War._ I'd probably say that the Nidaime was...the Black Knight. Not gonna spoil his identity for the people who don't know/might play _Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn._ The Sandaime was Chrom, from _Awakening._ Even though Chrom is arguably the worst Lord in the series, (aside from Marth and Roy, except Roy gets the most broken weapon in the entire series,) he's also the most powerful due to Awakening's high growth rates and stat caps. The Yondaime was Joshua, from _The Sacred Stones._**

 ** _"Kage Hoiru,"_ literally means, "shadow foil," but in this case the, "foil," part means that Naruto is effectively just...naturally good at beating down Kage-level ninja. Hell, that's just as true in canon, I just got to give him a special name for it.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

It was the first day of their new mission, and night had fallen. They'd spent the day veering just-so-slightly away from what Tayuya had called, "the biggest fuckin' base Orochimaru has outside of Otogakure, we need to get the hell away."

Naruto appreciated that information, it was the kind of thing that he needed to know as a squad leader...even for a group as disjointed as this one. While Naruto was fully equipped to fight as a team with Sasuke and Sakura, though that knowledge relied on his experiences with them as Genin and not an understanding of their current abilities as Chunin who he hadn't trained with in almost a year and a half. He was most comfortable with Tayuya, their time as a duo in the Kirigakure Rebellion having honed their teamwork.

Naruto was a little bit curious as to why why Sai, mentioning tactics, hadn't said anything about how he'd mesh with Naruto. That either meant he didn't believe Naruto would need the backup, or that he thought he and Naruto would be able to exchange places on the fly. Admittedly, it seemed as though Sai's training was purely focused on combat, with only some self-admitted rudimentary Fuinjutsu to bolster his arsenal. "Rudimentary," in the world of sealing, however, could mean anything from storage scrolls to explosives. Given that his specialty's medium was ink, as well, it stood to reason that he would be a bit more adept than others.

"Taicho," Sai spoke up as they were making camp, "would it not be pertinent to launch a short offensive against them? We could harm, or even cripple, Orochimaru's actions in Hi no Kuni and limit his offensive presence in Konohagakure. Particularly with you spearheading the attack, as your capability for destruction is well-known."

"No, Sai. We've got two, maybe even four, targets who'd be of high interest to Orochimaru if they were captured. Sasuke was branded with his Ten no Infuin, Tayuya was one of his elite ninja before she turned to our side. While the Aiganchou seal on Neji's forehead renders his abilities useless to Orochimaru if he dies, I don't doubt that the snake would be more than willing to keep him alive to experiment. And Hinata..."

"That won't happen." Neji interjected. "I will die before I allow her to be taken."

That was his duty as a member of the Branch House...something else that bothered Naruto. Before his match against the Hyuuga prodigy in the Chunin Exams so long ago, even during his years in the academy, Neji had always railed and rebelled against his destiny to die in order to protect the heiress of the Main House of the Hyuuga. Now, he was seemingly subservient to her, but that was practically a joke gone wrong; Hinata wasn't capable of giving orders, let alone having an effective slave. Their whole situation seemed artificially constructed.

Being on a mission this long, gone from the influence of their clan elders, might give Naruto the chance to fix that. He wouldn't be above manipulating Hinata's affection for him, if it allowed him to solve whatever was going on with her cousin. Also, the idea of the two of them marrying gave Naruto the willies. He respected Hinata, and would have liked to call Neji a tenative friend due to their interactions in the academy...even the stoic, fate-obsessed ninja had laughed at the infamous, "Gorilla Whiz Incident."

A sharp snap in the distance got Naruto's attention; though the sound was faint, he'd still picked it up.

"Neji."

"On it." He activated his Byakugan, frowning. "Six people, making an off-center ring around our position. Orders?"

Naruto gathered natural energy where he stood, trying to use what Fukasaku had called the, "One Sense," to feel where the people watching them were. Lazily, he threw a kunai into one of the trees behind him, though the silence afterward told him all that he needed to know; it hadn't hit.

"Caught. Good aim, Naruto." Neji said. "Everyone, get ready."

Sai took out his brush, beginning to draw. When the kunai Naruto had thrown came back to him, sent by one of their newfound enemies, an inky shape in the darkness grabbed ahold of it and pulled it down.

"On your signal, Taicho." Sai said.

They outnumbered the enemy by one, though that measurement could turn to thousands if Naruto wanted it to. Clones were looked down upon as weak diversions, in the ninja world, but in Naruto's hands they were more lethal than most of his other jutsu. Quality mattered over quantity, to most people, but a thousand to one odds were virtually impossible to overcome.

It was time to have some fun.

* * *

"Are you worried about them?"

"No, they can handle themselves."

Kakashi sat across from Danzo at a table in Ne's underground headquarters, located two hundred feet below the village proper.

"Then you're concerned about that boy."

"I am. I worked with you for a handful of years, but I'd never heard of anyone in Ne who fits his description."

"Well, that answer is actually relatively simple." Danzo said. "He was not, originally, from Ne. Konoha, yes, but I didn't have his parents produce a child for my program."

"Who is he?" Kakashi asked.

"You ask because, I assume, you will not reveal the information. It speaks quite...ill...of our beloved Hokage." Sarcasm dripped from Danzo's voice, at the word, "beloved," like venom from a spider's fangs.

"Oh?" Kakashi's interest was piqued. "Tell me, then. Out of respect for our history, I won't repeat what I hear...I know you wouldn't lie about something like that."

Danzo was a shrewd politician, but he was also a pragmatist. He knew that his days were numbered, and his surviving Sarutobi Hiruzen was little more than chance. The day he lost his arm, he should have died.

He knew that becoming the Hokage was little more than a pipe dream at this point, and he'd made his peace with that. He would defend it to his dying breath, regardless. However, he was not alone with his misgivings regarding Tsunade's current legacy.

"To truly understand, a different revelation is necessary: your sensei was her son by Kato Dan."

"He was _what?_ But she would have had to be..." Kakashi counted the years back in his head. "...fifteen!"

"She was. Her pregnancy kept her from active duty, during which time her lover died, so she gave the baby up to an orphanage. You can look at the records, if you like."

"Wait...what does this have to do with-"

"The Kyuubi attack was the last time all three Sannin were in Konoha simultaneously." Danzo interrupted him. "Namikaze Minato died that night. Tsunade grieved, and Orochimaru...consoled her."

Kakashi didn't like where this train was headed. He could read between the lines, here, but Danzo continued talking anyway.

"Nearly a year later, her second son was born. Once again, she abandoned him, and shortly thereafter Orochimaru fled the village...without his child. I chose to take him in, train him, and make him more loyal to this village than either of his parents were."

"So then, he's..."

"He will be the one to succeed me as the commander of Ne, when I die. His capabilities are unmatched by any of my other subordinates. Rather, that will be the case by the time I've finished training him."

"So you sent him to tag along with Naruto on that mission because the future Hokage, and Ne commander, need to have a working relationship. That won't happen without mutual trust."

"Does he know who's child he is?"

"Not to my knowledge, but I wouldn't be surprised if he did. He's frighteningly competent, and a perfect foil for Naruto. Where Naruto is bold, he is unassuming. Where Naruto's knowledge is broad and shallow, his is narrow and deep. Naruto utilizes brute force, almost a carpet-bombing approach, as opposed to that boy's finesse. They were practically tailor-made to work together."

"By design?" Kakashi raised an eyebrow as Danzo laughed at the question.

"Of course not. That's just how he...how Sai grew."

"Sai, huh? Why that name?" Kakashi had been in the Anbu and Ne. He knew that Danzo did not give his operatives names outside of their missions.

"Because that is the function he will perform, regarding his status as a soldier of Ne. The sai is a weapon developed to break commonly-used weapons, generally a katana or similar blade. Its middle length is also effective at causing puncture wounds, though that is a secondary capability. Just like the knife, Sai will be the one to break the weapons of Konoha's enemies, and Naruto must become an effective wielder of his tools. A Hokage must be comfortable with using and utilizing people, and the leader of a nation will have to weigh their decisions carefully. Ne...helps to counterbalance that weight."

It was a solid-enough explanation, more thought-out than Kakashi had first believed.

"I believe that concludes our business tonight." He said, looking at Danzo as the wizened shinobi mirrored his passive appearance.

"Good night, then, Kakashi. You know how to find me."

The _Issenjutsu no Meijin_ vanished from the facility without a trace, so smoothly that it almost made Danzo wonder if he'd ever been there at all.

* * *

Sai attacked with a ferocity that belied his expressionless face, his tipless tanto simultaneously blocking full sword swings from two enemies.

"Is that all you can do? I was under the impression that I was fighting against ninja, not civilians."

Two ink clones sprung from behind, each one killing an assailant; the pair had been the remainder of the team that had attacked Naruto's group.

"Sai, remind me not to get on your bad side." Sasuke said.

"Would you like your reminder on a daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, or other length-of-time basis? Or just once, if that would be more preferable?"

"Uh...never mind."

"As you wish, Sasuke-san."

The septet traveled for another fifteen minutes, distancing themselves from the corpses they'd made of the Oto shinobi who'd come after them. Finding a clear spot, Naruto gave the signal to halt their travel.

"We'll make camp here for the night." He said. "Since there's seven of us, we can have three watches in pairs and one person gets to sleep the whole night through, if they want. Or we can have two watches of two, and one of three. Any preferences? Each shift will be four hours long, and however we slice it, I want Neji, Hinata, and Sasuke on different shifts so that we'll have a Dojutsu-wielder on deck at all times."

"You're really falling into this whole leadership thing, piss-for-brains."

"Nah." Naruto denied. "This is just common sense stuff. Two Byakugan users, and a Sharingan user, will be better on a watch than most other people. Even with my heightened senses, or you with yours, we can't compete in terms of vision capabilities. Now, who wants to take what watch?"

Soon enough, it was decided, and the rest of the night passed peacefully. While that likely wouldn't be the case once they went in international lands, they were still in Hi no Kuni and relatively safe.

It bothered Naruto to leave such a supposedly large enemy base operational, but he trusted Tayuya's judgement. If she said it was too big for almost two full teams to take on, an even split between Jounin and Chunin with a Ne operative thrown into the mix...she'd likely been there before. The _reason_ behind ignoring it was probably because Orochimaru had a decent chance of being there, and Naruto knew something about the White Snake: Jiraiya was stronger, but Orochimaru was much faster and smarter, and harder to kill.

Naruto had spent more than a year growing stronger, but he'd mainly been practicing against a man who was similar to himself. Jiraiya was big, strong, and able to survive some of the harshest battlefields in the ninja world's history. What he was _not,_ and what Naruto didn't have, was cunning. Jiraiya and Naruto were the kind of ninja who went in with their most successful option, determined to make it succeed. Orochimaru was the type of ninja who could see a battle seven moves in advance, his prodigious intellect terrifying to ally and enemy alike.

Naruto had lied to Sai, though it hadn't been on purpose. In truth, any one of them could just as easily be a target for Orochimaru; Sakura was the Hokage's apprentice. Naruto was a Jinchuriki, and a powerful one at that. Sai, as a Ne operative, would probably be more of a bargaining chip than an experiment...but who could say for sure?

* * *

"Hidan's loss is a blow to our force." Pein said. "Not critical, but he was strong. I wonder...did you plan this?"

"No." Tobi said. "I didn't. If there's anyone to blame, it would be Itachi. Kisame remains adamant that after the four of them tried to corner Naruto, his body double vanished. Itachi told me that he fought Hatake Kakashi, and lost because he couldn't use his full power."

Pein wanted to question the hate in Tobi's voice when he mentioned Kakashi's name, but kept silent.

"Understandable. Though Itachi is one of our strongest members, Hatake's name is infamous throughout the Elemental Nations for his skill. Even if Itachi is stronger, operating with less than a third of his chakra would leave him vulnerable."

"You would suspect him of nothing?" Tobi asked.

"What is there to suspect me of?" Itachi's voice came from the back corner of the room, where Tobi had been unable to see him. "I was attacked before I could rejoin Kisame and Kakuzu. I lost."

"So the appearance of two swordsmen, one of them being a Konoha woman you identified as a former teammate, had absolutely nothing to do with you?"

"Do not test me, Tobi. I've been playing nicely up until now, but if you keep pushing me then I can let you see why I fought in the war that left you to die." In Itachi's eyes, rage and madness shone. "My eyes are stronger. My abilities are more powerful. I follow you out of _whim._ Do you think I fear you? Do you think I respect you?"

Pein watched passively as the two Sharingan-wielders stared one another down. It would be interesting, he thought, to see them battle. Tobi's style was to avoid attacks, the difficult rope-a-dope tactic of wearing out your opponent's chakra reserves before finishing them in their exhausted state. Given that their targets were Jinchuriki, that was a difficult process. Itachi, on the other hand, liked to finish fights quickly and decisively. Prolonged battles weren't in his favor, given his naturally low chakra reserves, so it was in his interest to utilize jutsu that used up very small amounts of his energy.

"Whether you do or not, you _will_ obey my orders."

Itachi snorted, an unusual display of derision for the normally polite Uchiha.

"The last time I obeyed anyone, I slaughtered more than three hundred people in six hours. I do not take orders, especially not from dead men."

"Stop it, Tobi." Maya said, appearing from her _Kamui_ as she came to Itachi's unneeded rescue. "I was there, I watched his body double get defeated."

"And you didn't help?" Pein asked.

"I am like Zetsu, Pein-sama. I am an observer, a spy...not a fighter. Konan-sama was also there, and she can confirm that Kakashi left the stadium shortly before the death of Itachi-kun's body double."

Tobi knew he had lost the argument, at that point. Pein valued Konan's word more highly than anybody else's. Though Itachi's face betrayed no emotion, Tobi could feel the smirk that the junior Uchiha wanted to display. This was the reason why the Akatsuki didn't have regular meetings; they were S-ranked criminals with their own agendas, and bad things would begin to happen when too many powerful people were in the same room.

"Enough." Pein declared. "In light of Hidan's death, I will be...revising teams. Maya, you are now Itachi's partner. Tobi, you will be Kisame's partner. Kakuzu will join Zetsu."

"Let's hope Zetsu's as durable as Hidan was, then." Itachi joked. "Kakuzu seems to enjoy killing his partners in order to replenish his heart count."

Quietly, the Kinslayer wondered to himself about why Kakuzu had never taken Hidan's heart for himself. It wasn't like the extraction would have killed the priest of Jashin, and Kakuzu's own _Jiongu_ technique would have stitched the heart to allow it to continue beating immortally.

Probably the same reason why he would attack indiscriminately whenever he and Hidan went into battle: he'd hated the Yugakure nukenin.

"I can vouch for Zetsu." Tobi said. "His abilities aren't something that the Sharingan can replicate, or counter. As for having a heart...well, you've seen Zetsu. Even if he did have a heart, at one time, he's become too vegetated to every have use for something so trivial."

"As I said already, _enough._ You will remain low until I give further orders, except for...Itachi, Maya, I have a task for you. Tobi, leave."

The _Uchiha no Yurei_ vanished in his _Kamui,_ giving one last glare to Itachi through his mask's single hole.

"What would you have us do, Pein-sama?" Maya asked.

"Orochimaru has been a loose cannon for...far too long. I will not pretend that I don't know of your sympathies regarding your home, Itachi." Before the Uchiha could protest, Pein continued. "Therefore, you may do them a service and continue to serve me at the same time. I want the two of you to hunt, and kill, Orochimaru."

"How could you possibly..." Itachi trailed off, body tensing as he prepared for combat.

"I know what it means to have pride for a nation, for a village, for a person. There are evils in this world, cruelty and hate run rampant in the hearts of men. There is also much good, however. There is justice, there is kindness, there are people with true loyalty. You slaughtered your clan, which is certainly an irredeemable crime, but you lack the madness to have done it willingly. That tells me that your true aim, beyond the apparent necessity of genocide, was to get within reach of a specific someone...Tobi, yes? You hate him with every fiber of your being, you despise him even more than yourself. You have made peace with your actions because you believe that your life will be given as penance, and you are determined to kill Tobi in revenge for whatever wrongs he committed against your village and yourself."

"I...how..." Itachi's eyes had gone wide, his Sharingan deactivated.

"I am the inheritor to the legacy of the Rikudo Sennin. All that there is to know, I have devoted myself to learning. For all that can be found, it is my self-given obligation to explore. Watching you for these past seven years, and your interactions with Tobi, have allowed me to understand you on a level that you aren't comfortable with. Truth be told, if a battle ever does come to pass between the two of you, I hope you are victorious."

Pein nodded, the signal for the Uchiha pair to leave.

"There is a team from Konoha sent to destroy Orochimaru's bases, led by the Kyuubi Jinchuriki, currently still inside of Hi no Kuni. If you join with his group, it will make for a faster travel and a more offensive presence when you finally do fight him."

After the revelation that Pein knew Itachi's true motivations in the Akatsuki, the Kinslayer didn't bother questioning how the organization's leader knew that information.

He took Maya's hand, and they vanished in a _Kamui._ It was time for their new mission to begin.


	34. A Crowse Encounter of the Bird Kind

**At last, this shit-show of a wait is over. Maybe, if I'd published a chapter last night, Britain wouldn't have left the EU? Bullshit prophecies like that are always fun to make up.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. OneLunchMan: Oh, I agree, Danzo is easily the scummiest character in the series just because he's the one who fucked up so much for so many other people. Still, he does have a certain honor about him regarding Konoha and its people...sometimes. Also, a confession: unfortunately, my PC can't run Overwatch, so I'm relegated to only getting to play it when I go to visit my girlfriend (a 650 mile/10 hour & 30 minute road trip) because for some reason I spend money on her and not myself. Like a fucking sucker. HOWEVER, as soon as I have a rig that can play, (because I don't want to get stuck with a console version of the game, you feel me?) you'll be the first to know.**

 **I almost wish I wasn't so nice to her, but _god,_ she just gets the happiest look on her face whenever I do anything that's either kind or unprompted and that makes my stupidity worth something.**

 **2\. Drake Vallion: Would...would you believe that I didn't think about that consequence until after you said something? I forgot how family trees worked. I'm ridiculous. Either way, yes. And as far as dropping off the map; don't worry about it, man, I know that life or side projects get in the way of things like reading fic. I hope you'll be able to at least stick around and read, though!**

 **Speaking of dropping off the map, has anyone heard from draven32? He hasn't reviewed in a few chapters and I'm curious.**

 **3\. Noahendless: Well, canonically, it would only make sense that they exchange eyes; Itachi's status as a high-powered nukenin mandates that only similarly strong opponents are coming after him in an attempt to kill him, which necessitates that he'll need to use the Mangekyou in order to survive. Following logic, this means that Itachi's eyesight is already extremely weak by the time he appears after the end of the Chunin Exams, and it would stand to reason that he'd be nearly blind by the time he died; enough that a ruthless Itachi would have been able to use the Izanagi to circumvent death and take Sasuke's eyes.**

 **As for the other part of that...I don't know. I have some pretty mixed feelings about what happened at the end of the series, and I feel like Kishimoto did that in order to meet a chapter length so that he'd be able to end on exactly 700 chapters. I don't particularly care about the whole reincarnation bit except as symbolism, nothing actually concrete. It would be just as easy to say, "they're just like the Rikudo Sennin's sons," rather than, "they're reincarnations of the Rikudo Sennin's sons." You feel me?**

 **4\. Lord Bedhead: Yeah, I enjoy subtlety. Overt writing is much easier, but small nuances that get fully revealed and understood later have always felt much more fulfilling to me. Sai was...a decision made to flesh out his character just as much as those of Orochimaru and Tsunade. I try to make my writing enthralling by way of more than just fight scenes, so thanks for that compliment!**

 **5\. Aaeru: If it makes you feel any better, FE1/3 have ports on the Nintendo DS (FE11/12) and you can get ROMs for them much more easily than for the originals. If you're going to play _Genealogy of the Holy War,_ though, you may as well play _Thracia 776_ (its sister game) as well. Those two are the most challenging Fire Emblem games, by a fairly wide margin. Personally, I found _Genealogy_ more difficult, but that's probably because I botched my pairings in the first generation...oops.**

 **I actually like Sai, as a character. I like him more than I like Sasuke, for whom he's the obvious replacement. If you haven't, I'd recommend that you go check out Kenchi618's _The Sealed Kunai,_ which is a pretty legendary fic as far as I'm concerned. It's right up there with LD 1449's _Lost Soul_ as a fic that everybody in the Naruto community needs to read at some point.**

 **Besides...unlike Tobi, Sai is a good boy. He never makes the same mistake twice...except for when he calls Ino beautiful. Oops. Sorry, Mephistbrophles, you brought that one on yourself.**

 **As for politics: I've said it before, I'm a student of the game. I was raised in a collegiate debate environment on issues of internal and foreign policy...taught me how to be really, really effective at shutting people down verbally. At some point, I'm a bit hopeful that political intrigue might actually take center stage in this fic's plot, but we'll have to see where that goes because I'm flying by the seat of my pants here.**

 **4\. SaKreD4LIFE: Nagato's an interesting man. I added something to this chapter once I saw your review; maybe it will shed a little bit of light on the subject for you.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"Taicho, we're being tailed." Sai said.

"Two people, one male and one female." Neji said.

They were heading toward Kusa no Kuni, and Naruto was now mildly worried. While it could be nothing, as foreign ninja were often shadowed by shinobi from the nation they were inside, Naruto had had a few too many experiences with ninja who operated in pairs. And, if he was unlucky, then the same one would come after him as he always had.

"Hinata, Sasuke, does anything feel off about their chakra? Anything aggressive?"

While Hinata's Byakugan couldn't see quite as far as Neji's, she could feel the, "intention," of the chakra, whether it was about to be used for Ninjutsu or Genjutsu, or for healing. The only catch was that she wasn't able to distinguish when neutral chakra was being used, in situations like tree-climbing or water-walking. Sasuke, on the other hand, had manifested a trait in his Sharingan that was somewhat similar to the Hyuuga; he could see chakra, though not the tenketsu, and determine its elemental affinity.

"They're not channeling anything except to travel." Hinata said.

"I can't feel anything." Sasuke said. "Of course, I can't _see_ them, either, so..."

"Yeah, we get it. Everyone, be on high alert."

"Like we aren't already." Tayuya grumbled.

"Slow down, let them catch us. Then we can determine if we should fight them or not."

"Who exactly would you be fighting, Naruto?"

There it was, that damningly calm voice that told Naruto he was out of his depth. To his side and ahead of him, tree-running _backwards,_ was Itachi.

"Son of a bitch...forget a month, I don't even get _two weeks_ before your ass comes to track me down again. What is this to you, a sport? For fuck's sake."

"I feel a little jealous, Itachi-kun." A woman's voice came from behind their group. "You put all this time and effort into searching for a target for a hunt that's been called off, instead of spending it playing with me?"

"Your idea of, 'playing,' isn't exactly what I normally have in mind. Those toys aren't for children, and that collar should go on a dog."

"But, Itachi-kun...no, Itachi _Goshujin-sama..._ "

"Okay, that's enough of that shit." Tayuya growled. "I'm not gonna fuckin' sit through some BDSM-fueled lovers' spat."

She stopped running, and all eight other ninja followed her example.

"Do you, either of you, mind telling us what you're doing?" Sakura asked. "The odds are against you, I suggest you play nice."

"Don't-" Naruto didn't get to finish his warning.

Of course, Itachi was a wanted criminal in every nation of the world. It was practically Sakura's job to stay aware of who and what remained in Konoha's Bingo Book, and Itachi's bounty was leveled at sixteen and a half billion ryo; enough that no sane person would go after him, because the promise of money was worth far less than the amount of skill it would take to bring down Konoha's most dangerous nukenin.

Still, it had been poor judgement on her part to speak so brazenly, as though the enemy's numerical advantage would ever mean anything to Itachi. The Uchiha renegade could count on one hand the ninja he wouldn't want to face in battle; none of them stood before him now. Sakura's words served as nothing but false bravado and an empty threat.

"Was that a challenge?" There was a new, dark tone to Itachi's voice.

The medicine that he'd begun taking to counteract his illness, at Maya's behest, had a side effect; it enhanced his aggression, leading the normally calm Uchiha to greater acts of ferocity. That was why he was always on edge around Tobi, why he had very nearly come to blows with the masked man.

And here he was, being accosted by a fourteen-year-old girl who had barely been a Chunin for a week.

"Itachi-kun, please...it's not like they'd be difficult for you. After all, the Kyuubi is the strongest among them, and I very clearly remember you ragdolling him across Kumogakure's entrance."

"At least he would be able to survive against me." Itachi countered. "That's not something I could say about the rest of them."

"Brother." Sasuke stepped forward. "Why are you here?"

"Because I was ordered to be. You've grown, Sasuke."

Sakura collapsed.

"She looked at my ring, and I cast a Genjutsu. Don't worry, she's not dead."

"You sound upset by that." Sai noted.

"I don't enjoy killing, but I hate teenage girls who act superior to other people. Regardless of her role, if she continues to act like that as the Hokage's apprentice, then she's a liability."

"You still haven't answered the question directly, Itachi." Naruto said. "Why are you here?"

"To join you." The masked woman said. "I am Maya, and I am Itachi-kun's...mmm, _partner_ in the Akatsuki."

"Join?" Neji asked. "One S-ranked nukenin, and someone who we have no frame of reference for except those Sharingan, join us?"

"We were ordered by our leader to eliminate Orochimaru." Maya said, not trusting Itachi to continue talking without further enraging himself. "He told us there was a team from Konoha near the edge of Kusa, and to join up with them."

"Oh, for shit's sake." Naruto groaned. "This is a political nightmare. Holy rice-a-roni, do you even _get_ how fucked we are with that kind of bullshit? Like, the literal second we walk within a hundred miles of civilization, we are going to be struck down by a righteous fucking hand of god. We are-"

"Going to be fine." Itachi interrupted him. "Your task is to destroy Orochimaru's hidden bases. Ours is to kill the man. Therefore, logic dictates that we work together."

"Itachi...look. You're a good man. Fucking crazy, but you haven't killed me at any of the five times we've met, so you're okay with me. But the world is fucking balls-to-the-wall on your ass."

"Naruto, I think the rest of us would like an explanation of what's going on here." Neji said.

"Oh, that's right, you two weren't at the Chunin Exams in Suna, you wouldn't...okay. So, there's an organization called the Akatsuki who are hunting down Jinchuriki. I'm a Jinchuriki, and Itachi is part of the Akatsuki. But, due to information that I'm not at liberty to disclose, Itachi is actually still loyal to Konoha, though that fact is only known to us. He's on our side, but he has to make it look like he's not, except now he's been allowed to look like he is because his leader thinks that he's not. Am I making sense?"

"You're making my brain hurt, piss-for-brains." Tayuya said.

"Is that because of his hair?" Maya asked, raising a finger as though she'd just solved a deep mystery of the universe.

"I'm almost sad that you're my enemy. I like you." The redhead pouted.

"I am _whatever_ Itachi-kun wants me to be." The masked kunoichi said suggestively. "He's still loyal to Konoha, so I will be too. I'm on your side."

"Well, you know what, fuck it. Fine, you're in. What do you know about Orochimaru that we don't?" Naruto said.

"Well, for starters, his name means, 'big snake,' and-" Maya was cut off by an exasperated sigh from Naruto.

"This is how it feels to deal with your bullshit, _honey._ God, I need Tenten here so we can mock you together and call you 'onii-chan.'" Tayuya said.

"You know your relationship is fucked up when insults are a term of endearment, and pet names are used sarcastically." Naruto gave a quick laugh after his words. "She's not serious about that."

"She's serious about taking a ride on your dick-mobile, that leads to the phallus palace, overlooking pound town."

"Taicho, why is your sister a degenerate brother-fucker? It's common knowledge that Hinata-san and Neji-san are-"

 _"NOT BY CHOICE!"_ Hinata shouted, startling everyone into silence. "Do you think that I w-want that? Do you think that they care what I want, even if my father tells them so? They just don't want to admit that Neji-onii shouldn't be allowed in the Branch House! They want his power in the Main House, but because my father was the elder brother..."

"I will carry out my duty as a shinobi of Konoha and a member of the Hyuuga clan." Neji said. "That is my fate."

"Neji...take off your headband. I'm going to look at your Aiganchou seal." Naruto said.

"Is that an order from my commanding officer?"

"No. It's a request from your friend."

* * *

"You know his true intentions, yes?"

"Of course, Konan."

The _Kami no Tenshi_ stood beside Nagato, inside of his tower in Ame. This was his supreme command center, from which he could control the _Rikudo Pein_ with relative impunity. Though there was a certain distance requirement, it was easily a small price to pay for the sheer range that he possessed with that control.

"But...you continue to keep him in our organization, even though his goal is entirely separate from ours?"

Nagato sighed, shaking his head, though the motion wasn't meant as a response to her question.

"I do, but it's because I trust him to see his mission through. Rather, I have faith in his ideals."

"You do?"

"Of course. While Konoha itself is a place that the world, and I along with it, have prejudiced ourselves against...it would be wrong to think that all of Konoha's shinobi are bad people. Just as Jiraiya-sensei took us from our war-torn homes and gave us the power to stand on our own, Danzo ripped the soul of the Akatsuki out after he killed Yahiko. Jiraiya-sensei's next student, the Yondaime Hokage, refused to engage battle in our nation out of respect for his master's presence here after the Second War ended. Just as I trust Orochimaru to be loyal only to himself, I trust Itachi to act in his nation's best interest."

Nagato paused briefly before speaking again.

"I've known about his...disloyalty...for a long time now. Just like I know, 'Maya,' lied to protect him, and the same way I know that your trip to Suna was just a cover to have an extended visit with Jiraiya-sensei."

Konan blushed, looking away.

"It's okay, Konan. You're only human, after all."

"And you're not?" She asked, her tone one of worry.

"Whether I am, or not, is not for me to decide. Our people need something, someone, to believe in. Hanzo kept this nation united through force of charisma, and his sheer strength. Blood and fear, however, are not the ways to run an effective ninja village. The ninja must trust their leader, and the leader must trust the ninja who serve the village. Respect, compassion, and teamwork are necessary to make units cohesive in and out of battle. The only thing that the five largest villages have done wrong is allow for their rulership to pass from a military dictatorship to some farce of a democracy."

"The lessons Jiraiya-sensei taught us." Konan noted. "But why repeat them, after so long? Have you had a change of heart?"

"Absolutely not." Nagato nearly laughed.

"Then what is it?"

"At the moment? I'm imagining what Orochimaru will do when he comes face-to-face with the first man who made him fear for his life."

* * *

"Holy...Neji, do you have any idea about what they did to your seal?"

Inside the boundaries of the Aiganchou seal, and around it, seal-markings made in poor penmanship were on prominent display. Through all his study of Fuinjutsu under Jiraiya and Oboro, as well as some experimentation of his own, Naruto had a hint about what the additional seals were meant to do...and it was nothing pretty. Even so, he had to admire that someone with such bad handwriting had managed to create so many complex seals in such a confined space; the seals didn't show when Neji wore his headband.

Of particular interest were clusters of marks that Naruto knew to mean, "obedience," and, "control," obviously meant as further measures of enslavement for the unruly Hyuuga genius.

"I know that before, I was much more...angry. Violent, even, towards the clan elders. They didn't wish for such a liability in the clan, so they threatened to make Hanabi-sama the clan heir and brand Hinata-sama with the Aiganchou if I didn't comply to have my own seal modified."

"That's not a decision they can make!" Hinata protested. "My father would kill them himself if they ever tried to...tried to..."

"It would be an enormous blow to their image, to do something like that." Itachi spoke up. "Though the Uchiha clan is no longer there to compete with them over which is the strongest family in Konoha, they benefit greatly from high status in the public eye. They wouldn't risk losing that."

"What are you saying?" Neji asked.

"I'm saying..." Naruto gave a pointed look to Tayuya at that point, who began a pointed Genjutsu made to knock Neji out. "...it's time for me to fix what went wrong."

Neji collapsed in unconsciousness, though Hinata caught him before he could hit the ground.

"Sai, exactly how much Fuinjutsu do you know?"

"Enough that the two of us will be able to counter and reverse the effects of these seals."

"Sounds good to me." Naruto said. "That reversal in particular...I wonder if we could make it so that whoever tries to use the Aiganchou against him will have its effects rebounded?"

"Sealing is the closest thing that we have to the magic that filled the world before the gods died. If you can think it up, Taicho, then you can make a seal that brings those thoughts to reality."

Naruto had never heard it put quite like that, but the idea made sense.

"The rest of you...Sai and I are going to need a little bit of time to work. Go do, uh...something. I don't know. Talk. I know I'm the most proficient here at running my mouth, but if they're going to be joining us then you might as well get familiar with them."

* * *

"I hate you." Sasuke said.

"You have every right to. You could even try to kill me now, if you felt like you could."

Sasuke's Mangekyou came to life, the inverted color scheme throwing Itachi off almost as much as the revelation that his younger brother possessed it. The two Uchiha were on their own, separated from the women of the group; it was the first one-on-one time that they'd had since Sasuke was eight years old, before the Uchiha clan had been slaughtered by their prodigal son.

"I hate you because you lied to me, Itachi. Not because you killed everyone. I hate you because my drive for vengeance almost made me defect from Konoha and join Orochimaru in order to gain the power to kill you."

"And? Do you not want justice? Do you not want revenge?"

"Not against you." Sasuke's glare was piercing, as though he could see through all the deceptions that Itachi had taken careful years to lay down around himself.

"Then who would you avenge yourself upon, if not the killer?"

"You're just a ninja. You followed orders. The true guilty party is the one who ordered the strike in the first place...Danzo."

Itachi's face hardened, his own Mangekyou matching Sasuke's.

"I won't be able to guarantee your safety if you move against him. His agents, his skills...he is more powerful than he seems, politically or otherwise. He does not have the problems that other elderly ninja do: his chakra supply is plentiful, and he has turned himself into a perversion of nature. Furthermore, his death...it would not help Konoha in any way. Danzo is a terrible man, a cruel and cynical tyrant, but every breath he takes is for Konoha's survival. If you attack him, you're not likely to survive. Not as you are now."

"Well then, _brother,_ it sounds like you and I are going to do some training. Some very extensive training. I may have forgiven you for all the things you've done, but I'm not forgetting. If you really want to make it up to me, then you owe me this."

Itachi sighed. He knew that Sasuke was right.

Besides, if they were going to go up against Orochimaru at some point in the relatively near future, Sasuke would need to be able to avoid dying at the end of the White Snake's _Kusanagi_ blade.

It was a bit harder to be loyal to a corpse than to a living person, after all.


	35. Wheeling and Sealing

**Word count is a little low this chapter, but considering I gave you guys two large chapters in a row, I'm cutting myself some slack.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. OneLunchMan: If Sasuke combined multiple Mangekyou Sharingan then I'm sure Kishimoto would come up with something like, "now it's called the Immortal Mangekyou Sharingan, and it makes Sasuke invincible until I give Naruto an ungodly fucking boost to his power levels that makes absolutely no sense but you've gotta take it on faith and suspension of disbelief."**

 **He probably would, too.**

 **Also, Sai's personality is gonna remain, "follow Naruto's orders," until something happens at the end of this arc that I came up with while writing and let me tell you it's gonna _fuck me up._ Enjoy.**

 **2\. ArtanisRose: You are making an understatement, my friend. A very large, if well-intentioned, understatement of the...year? The decade? The Hyuuga clan elders aren't often dealt with in fic, and they _certainly_ didn't receive any repercussions in canon that I can think of, or at least none that were revealed. I'm very sympathetic to Neji's plight, as I think canon did him a massive injustice via his fate. It was such bullshit, to me.**

 **3\. Drake Vallion: Good to know that you'll still be here. And...yeah. Nagato was never really a villain; he was manipulated as a child, and after Yahiko's death he became very easy to mold into the shape Obito wanted him. I found it particularly telling that he wasn't really in charge, as his revelation about Akatsuki's plan to Naruto during the assault on Konoha makes no sense despite Nagato's generally knowledgeable and philosophical nature. Once I understood that he was just being controlled, my attitude towards him became somewhat similar to my feelings about Itachi; both men are incredibly powerful ninja with pacifism in their hearts, and different ways of attempting to reach that peace.**

 **4\. XxXprodigyXxX: Thanks for the compliment! I try to make sure that, even if my characters are somewhat OOC compared to canon, (re: Jiraiya snapping on Tsunade very early in this fic,) I can have some sort of reasoning for it, and a major character, (which, unfortunately for me, _Naruto_ has a huge amount of,) needs a major flaw. I'm having a hell of a time trying to make it all work, but I think I'm succeeding. Tsunade, in particular, has gotten set up on in this fic. Also, you _will_ see more of Konoha's inside politics, but that's going to take place after a few chapters, once this arc ends.**

 **Does that count as spoilers, or a sneak peek? I don't know, it's up to you to decide that. Still, I hope you're ready...also, congratulations for being the 200th review!**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"So...Maya. I'm not dumb enough to think that's your real name. Nobody who wears a mask would give anything but a fake alias." Tayuya said, a pointed look directed at the first female Akatsuki member she'd seen.

"That's mean...Maya is a good girl! I would never be so deceitful."

Tayuya closed her eyes and gave a long sigh. She really, really hoped that she didn't develop some sort of antic like that.

"Um..." Hinata said, and both of the older women turned to look at her.

"What's wrong?" Tayuya asked.

"I, um, I'm just...worried about Neji-onii."

"Don't be." Maya told her. "It's our organization's job to keep track of the skills of the Jinchuriki, and Naruto comes from a long line of sealing masters. If there's something wrong with a seal, you don't want anybody but an Uzumaki to look at it."

The words visibly calmed the Hyuuga heiress, as Hinata relaxed with the decision to put her faith in Naruto's abilities.

"Speaking of which," Tayuya's gaze shot back to the enemy who was not an enemy, "why are you hunting down the Biju?"

"That's a question for our leader, Pein-sama. For the rest of us, it's really just a matter of why we joined the Akatsuki. I joined because the man who brought me back to life is one of its founders, and to get closer to Itachi-kun. He joined to keep tabs on my benefactor, and to kill him."

"Well that's complicated bullshit."

"All of us, except for myself, Pein and his right hand, 'the Messenger,' are S-ranked nukenin from various countries. Hidan died in Suna, which means that our membership consists of one shinobi from Suna, Iwa, Kiri, Taki and Kusa, two from Ame, and three from Konoha."

"That's...a disturbing plurality, for a nation that likes to talk about its pacifism." Tayuya said.

Before she could continue, though, a scream she didn't recognize came from the direction they'd walked away from; that made it either Sai or Neji, and Tayuya doubted that an unconscious teen, even a Jounin, could do much damage to an Anbu.

Hinata panicked, nearly bolting, but Maya stood in the way.

"Trust them." The masked woman commanded. "Fuinjutsu is...not a kind art."

* * *

Reams of paper were strewn about, underneath and around Neji's body, as Naruto and Sai scrambled to seal fast enough to counter the maladaptive rebounding that they'd caused by tampering with the alterations to Neji's seal. Chakra was leaking out of Naruto's tenketsu like a sieve, draining into the sealwork that he was penning with abandon.

Sai had begun uttering a mantra in order to keep himself focused, the words seeming to dictate the next marks that he would put down. Naruto used that for directional information as to how he could best work together with the Ne Anbu. The sealing process itself was actually under Naruto's carefully controlled command, as he worked in the traditional Uzumaki method of circular seals; the emblem on his headband, and his jacket, as well as all of Konoha's flak vests, was actually the secret missive to his clan's success with Fuinjutsu.

The outer sealing ring acted as a border for the seal as a whole, with each concentric ring of sealing circles acting as a containment method for a new directive. The only problem was that he had to start in the middle and work his way outwards, and if he tried to make too large a sealing ring without enough chakra then he'd end up draining himself to death. Not that Naruto was particularly worried about that, as his chakra was already several times stronger than a normal person's before accounting for his massive reserves, but the fact still remained that he shouldn't try Uzumaki Fuinjutsu after a prolonged battle.

He had a clone on standby to build up his supply of nature energy, infusing Senjutsu into the seal's workings.

"Taicho, my hands are going stupid." Sai said, and Naruto understood.

"Take a break, then. I'll finish the seal myself."

The phrase, "stupid hands," generally referred to a sudden inability to make hand seals for Ninjutsu, but the associated cramping and loss of coordination were absolutely lethal liabilities to come across in the middle of a seal's creation. Thankfully, Sai wasn't the only person working on the seal, and Naruto was the more knowledgeable one between the two of them. The Ne Anbu moved out of the way of Naruto's seal, the Kyuubi Jinchuriki working at a furious pace as even more chakra began to spill out from his body. It was enough that he'd created a visible aura around himself, the energy a swirling rainbow of colors. Naruto's own blue chakra, the deep red and burnt orange of the Kyuubi's halves, as well as the yellow hue of natural energy, all radiated from his body.

Each of his arms moved separately, one of them underneath the Kyuubi's power. As Naruto gave a mental picture to the beast of how the seal was supposed to look, Sai watched on in sheer amazement. He'd never seen anything like this, despite his pedigree as the child of a Fuinjutsu master and the apprentice of another. While he could read and understand everything that Naruto was doing, each individual sigil and marking holding their own meaning, he knew that he could never accomplish anything like this; he simply didn't have the chakra supply, let alone the skill, to make it to the halfway point of a seal this massive.

For Naruto's part, he was now running almost entirely off of natural energy and the Kyuubi's corrosive chakra. Still, he kept writing, kept moving, slowly completing the massive spiral he'd begun. At long last, he finished inscribing the final outer ring.

"Sai...give me a half-Ram seal and charge all the chakra you can into the seal. I'll match you. Then, we're done."

"As you command, Taicho."

The explosion of their chakra made the ground buckle around them, and Neji screamed as he opened his eyes. Then, the Hyuuga prodigy collapsed back into silent unconsciousness. Naruto followed him soon, face-first into the dirt, though he was still fully awake. The rings of circles began to spin in alternate directions, shrinking and collapsing as it moved to Neji's head. Naruto had been ambitious; maybe a little too much, as his current exhaustion told him. However, if it removed the Aiganchou from Neji's forehead on top of eliminating the alterations made to his seal, then it would be worth it.

"I can't move. Might have overdone it, just a little bit. Go round everyone up, and tell them we probably won't be making any progress for the next three days at least."

Naruto would recover from the ordeal overnight, but the unsealing process had affected Neji's cranial chemistry. He wanted to know whether or not his teammate would be fit for duty, and if freeing him from the slave-like seal effects would prove to be a health hazard. Sai walked off, knowing that their ragtag group couldn't have wandered too far away. That left Naruto alone with his fellow Jounin, who he would soon join in unconsciousness.

"I tell you what, pal, you'd better be worth it." Naruto sighed. "No more of that fatalism bullshit. You hear me? All that 'Hyuuga genius,' or whatever, can fuck right out the window."

With that, he closed his eyes and welcomed sleep.

* * *

"Are they dead?" Sasuke asked as the seven of them stood around Naruto and Neji's prone forms. "That'd be a terrible way to end this mission."

Sakura couldn't resist the small giggle that escaped her when Naruto snored loudly.

"Who...prank next...Ten-chan?" He mumbled in his sleep.

Slowly, Neji stirred.

"Oh, fuck, my head..."

Tayuya got a sickening case of _deja vu,_ remembering both waking up in the destroyed forest and in her hospital bed.

"Neji-san, it seems the sealing process was a success." Sai said, directing attention to the Hyuuga's brow.

"It's gone!" Hinata exclaimed.

Neji stood up, looking at his surroundings and trying to gauge what was happening.

"What do you mean, the...wait a second, where the hell am I? What are we- I mean, what are they-" Neji's questioning was interrupted as Hinata barreled into her cousin, wrapping him in a hug.

"You're okay! I was so w-worried, onii-san...t-he elders and the seal a-and the..." Hinata had been moved to tears, her crying enough to render her speech unintelligible.

"It's okay, Hinata-chan." His hand ran up and down her back, and he thanked the dead gods that his cousin couldn't see the imperious scowl that he gave to the other ninja present.

"The last thing I remember is the clan elders threatening me. I didn't even get a chance to refute their logic before I lost consciousness, due to the activation of the Aiganchou." A steel resolve worked its way into his apupiled eyes. "I'm going to kill them."

"Okay, it's time to bring you up to speed." Tayuya said. "We're on a mission to destroy Orochimaru's different hidden bases. Itachi and Maya are members of the Akatsuki, and _they_ were ordered by their leader to kill Orochimaru, so we're going to be working together for the time being. Piss-for-brains is taking a nap down there, but he and Sai created a huge Fuinjutsu array to try to get the Aiganchou off of you. It worked."

"Well, that's simple. Still, are you not the least bit worried about them?"

Hinata finally separated from her cousin, a teary-eyed smile on her face.

"I am loyal to Itachi-kun, and he will not attack you unless you attack him first." Maya said.

"That's the first time I've come across an S-ranked nukenin with morals." Neji said. "For most of you, it's kill on sight or be killed when you're seen."

"True as that may be, I still hold Konoha in my heart." Itachi said. "Besides, there's only three of you who could pose a threat to me. I'm not particularly worried."

"Taicho's orders were that we won't move out for three days. I suggest that we make camp and busy ourselves while he recovers."

That sounded like a plan.

* * *

Drip.

Drip.

Naruto found himself within his seal again, though this time he'd been called there rather than going of his own will.

"Oh, boy. This should be good."

 **"We need to talk."** The Yin half of the Kyuubi said.

"An unusual demand, coming from you. Has something happened?"

 **"No, this time is merely more opportune. Your chakra is exhausted, you are unconscious...and you have questions, which I hold the answers to."**

 **"We."** The Yang half corrected it. **" _We_ hold the answers."**

 **"I, we, me, us...whatever."**

 **"Don't you talk back to me, you walking ramen sink! God only knows how content you are to slave your life away for nothing but personal recognition and a _bowl of soup!"_**

 **"How dare you disrespect ramen! That food is holy, and if it weren't for this cage then I'd make sure you would be pretty, 'hole-y,' too!"**

 **"Was that a challenge, Yin? I could take you any day! Come on, fight me, you piece of shit!"**

 **"We're the _same person,_ you dumbfuck furry!"**

Naruto had completely lost sense of the situation.

"Uh...earth to fox, earth to fox. What was all that about questions and answers?"

 **"Oh, call me a furry, will you? I swear, if that cage weren't in the way then I would grind you into a paste!"**

 **"Hey, at least I don't look like I was sleeping inside of a corpse for sixteen and a half years."**

The two Biju halves continued to ignore Naruto, who did his best to think. What was it that his grandmother had said would be able to affect them, something from before Ninjutsu?

"Wash the spears when the sun climbs high. Wash the spears when the sun climbs low. Wash the spears. Who fears to die? Wash the spears...no one I know."

The two beasts froze, turning to look at him with a death stare that Naruto could only describe as, "frenzied complacence." He knew how much the Kyuubi despised being controlled, but if neither piece of it wanted to listen to him...he would make them listen.

"Tell me why you called me here."

 **"To warn you."** They both said at once.

"About what?"

 **"All of the Biju hold specific dominion over a certain aspect. The Ichibi is sand, the Nibi is fire, the Sanbi is water, the Yonbi is earth. The Gobi is wind, the Rokubi is acid, the Nanabi is insectile fauna. The Hachibi is lightning. I, we...our attribute is luck, and decidedly more good luck than bad. Our periods of good luck last for decades, even as long as a century, but our periods of bad luck come intermittently. Thankfully, they only last for a short period of time, anywhere from one to five years...but one is approaching. Luck cannot be made to account for everything, and there's no doubt that you are my strongest container in the last thousand years, but you should take caution."**

"I really don't like the idea of a near-deity telling me to be careful. That feels wrong, somehow, especially since your power is tied to me."

Naruto didn't want to get overconfident, but he knew that he was strong. Still, the warning ran through his head, and he left it there to settle.

He felt his consciousness fade from the boundaries of the _Shiki Fuin,_ and drifted back to sleep.

 ** _"You should know better than to attempt to interfere with destiny."_** A new voice said to the halves of the Kyuubi. _**"That's my job, after all, isn't it?"**_

 **"Antal Dara. Who would have thought, after all these years, that you'd decide to show up again?"**

 _ **"It's not that I decided to show up, Kurama. It's that I was found, again. When that boy passed through my Labyrinth, not only did he manage to bring others out, but he succeeded in returning to his own world...even his own time. I assume you know the truth about those children who came with him?"**_

 **"I think so. The feeling of their chakra is his, and yet...not. Do you have an explanation?"**

 _ **"His existence is one that bends causality. Ta'veren, as a people from long ago liked to call it. Aidanmar, as my civilization named them. It is around him, by him, through him, that the future will be made."**_

 **"That doesn't count as an answer to my question."**

 _ **"Then you won't get an answer, young god of battle. Your pride will blind you, now as before, and ever after."**_

 **"I don't need to listen to you insult me. Be gone from this prison of mine, you ancient relic...you should have died with the rest of them."**

 _ **"True as that may be, as weak as I am against the weapons of men and demons, I am the one who endures. I am the one who survives. Can you say the same of yourself, wretched servant of corrupted strength?"**_

Deep laughter echoed as it vanished, the speaker unseen, and it burned Kurama's soul to know that in its heart of hearts, it had been right in knowing fear.


	36. Striking Orochimaru's Base

**Holy shit, I'm back on the, "two chapters in two days," train. Love it when that happens. This would have been out earlier today, but after I got home from work I took a nap...and consequently woke up feeling even MORE tired than I had before. I hate that shit.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. OneLunchMan: I'm not going that route entirely, but yes, I'm definitely borrowing elements of that methodology. Past and present and future, the lateral timeline...all things are bound to the revelations of Samsara. The Wheel turns as the Wheel wills, the God-Emperor dies by the hand of his own creation, and all of life's failures bind themselves away from the true trail that must be undertaken. That is the path I tread.**

 **2\. SaKreD4LIFE: They will, but, "they," will not. What secrets does that blue lodestone hold? Will we ever manage to find out? Why did Kishimoto consider, "aliens from the moon," as the final antagonists of _Naruto?_**

 **We just don't know.**

 **3\. Drake Vallion: That's right. Antal Dara, whose role in the heavens is unrevealed as of yet but who mentioned to the Kyuubi that its role is to, "interfere with destiny," is still alive...somehow. I'm sure I'll come up with an explanation later. And Neji...that poor bastard. At least he didn't have to suffer any more.**

 **4\. ForeverFallen76: Thanks for the compliment! And, yeah, even though NaruHina was literally all that anybody saw coming from a million miles away, it just...doesn't sit right with me. I don't know, I just can't really accept it. I'm trying to evolve the relationship incrementally, and thank you for making me feel like I'm succeeding. Itachi and "Maya" are another element that I wish others dealt with in fic, because Itachi is one of my favorite characters and he deserves better.**

 **Until I decide to be cruel, that is.**

 **5\. Noahendless: Thanks, it's something I've been trying to figure out how to implement for a while now. We'll see where I really take it from here, but don't expect _too_ much, I guess? I'm still trying to work the fic out in my head, as well as on paper.**

 **As of this chapter's posting, _Within the Straws I Grasp_ has reached 209 reviews, 254 favorites, and 392 followers! Thank you for your support, and please enjoy this chapter.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

Naruto woke up with his head in Tayuya's lap, one of her hands running through his long hair. He hadn't gotten it cut since before leaving Konoha on his year-and-some-change training trip, and while it didn't grow as quickly as Neji's or Ino's did, he'd definitely gained about six inches of blond length that Tayuya had a habit of playing with when she thought he was asleep.

"Mm...feels good." He mumbled.

"Are you awake now?" She asked, a question which he didn't respond to. "You've been out for a day and a half."

"I _what?_ " His eyes shot open, staring straight at Tayuya's.

"You've been sleeping for almost two days."

"I have? Normally, I recover from chakra exhaustion a lot faster...maybe it's got something to do with the sealing method I used? I don't know."

"Well whatever the fuck it is, you're back. It worked, too, just so you know."

"It did?"

"Yeah, Neji's practically smiling. I won't lie to you, it's making me pretty fuckin' uncomfortable."

"Well, put up with it." Naruto chastised her. "And get used to having friends. It was one thing when they were being nice because I was with you, but now you're my girlfriend and Tsunade obaa-chan made you an official Jounin of Konoha, so you outrank most of them. Alliance...that's not enough. Friendship, bonds between people? That's what makes a strong village, and a strong ninja. If there's no common ground of trust, then the whole system will fall apart as soon as whoever is in charge dies. That's why Orochimaru is going to fail, and why the five Great Nations are so strong."

It was also the reason why he tried his best to be kind to people. It did a lot more good to have as many friends, and few enemies, as possible. Despite his status as a prankster and a pariah, he'd turned his image around after defeating Gaara during the Chunin Exams. Then, he'd successfully brought Sasuke back after what was officially labelled a kidnapping. While he'd likely been written off or forgotten by many people during his lengthy absence, he was sure that his image would never actually get worse while he wasn't there to send his public relations ratings down the toilet.

"Thanks for the business ethics lesson." Tayuya grinned, mocking him lightly. "I'll keep that in mind. Now, would you mind getting off of me?"

"Yes, I would, actually. Your thighs are really comfy, but I guess I could get convinced to move...maybe."

"Oh, hell. What do I need to do?"

Before she could react, his head shot up to kiss her, stopping just short of a painful tooth-to-tooth impact as his lips met hers. Stunned as she was, she didn't resist when his head fell straight back down into her lap. Her body shook slightly from the impact, something that she noticed he took some small amount of glee in...but she relaxed, content to let him get away with it. They were dating, weren't they? He could get by with it this time.

"Hmm...you need to accept that I'm not moving. That's what you need to do. Did you lay down next to me at night?"

"Of course." Nothing would deprive her from her favorite space-heater. The vegetation in Kusa no Kuni was tall and thick, and the dense forestry kept a fair amount of light out, making it much colder than in Hi no Kuni's spacious forests or rolling hills. He'd spoiled her, and now she needed the heat he provided at night.

Naruto smiled at that, one arm reaching up to cup the back of Tayuya's head. As he tipped her down, he moved himself up, meeting her for a much softer, gentler kiss.

"I love you." He said after they separated. "Nothing is ever going to take you from me."

It was far from the first time he'd said those words during their time together, but every instance felt just as special to her. His overprotectiveness of her after, in his words, "the clusterfuck that was Kiri," had faded back into his general, authentic sense of care. They kept themselves open and honest with each other, and that communication had allowed him to ease into his previous self; the only difference was that he no longer closeted his feelings off from her, and always told her when something was on his mind.

Warm spring days like this, just days from summer, but not quite there yet...Tayuya almost wished that they could remain alone, out there, forever.

From a distance, the rest of their group watched. Three of the four men remained passive, and while Hinata's heart broke a little at seeing her crush with someone else, he looked too happy for her to be upset with anyone except herself. Sakura and Maya both thought to themselves that it would be nice to be shown that kind of affection, _ever,_ let alone when other people might be in a near vicinity. Sakura, in particular, wished that Sasuke would just ask her out already.

Sai watched with intent, as something Naruto had said truly struck a nerve in him. _"If there's no common ground of trust, then the whole system will fall apart as soon as whoever is in charge dies."_ Immediately, he had thought of Danzo, and the Ne program as a whole; the only trust, between teammates in the roots of Konoha's great tree, was that they would be left behind if they fell behind, or eliminated if they became a liability. That was as true for Sai as anyone else, despite the painter's status as his master's protege.

Did that mean Ne, as a cause, was destined for failure? Danzo held the loyalty of his subordinates, soldiers who would just as quickly die for the man as fight for him, but Naruto's charismatic words resonated inside of Sai's brain. Blood for blood, life for life, Ne understood _teamwork..._ but not _camraderie._ Friendship was as foreign to the raised-from-birth ninja as any other feeling was, be it anger or grief or the ability to hold a grudge.

It would not come easily, but Sai told himself that he would begin to venture into the world of friend-making. If it was something that his Taicho believed in, something the future Hokage claimed would make him strong, then was it not Sai's duty to support him and follow his lead?

 _The bonds of friendship will make ninja strong._ Sai committed the thought to memory, and thanked Danzo for sending him on a mission with such an enlightening Taicho as Uzumaki Naruto.

* * *

They'd been in the field for three months, traversing around minor and major nations to destroy each of Orochimaru's secret bases one by one. The cool September air

"You know, I liked how secret bases worked in _Pokemon_." Naruto said. "You could only have one. This, though...this is bullshit."

"Okay, piss-for-brains, I've held off on this question for a long time, but...when the hell did you get all the time to play those video games?"

"I skipped school. Sometimes I even went into school with a system and played them."

"Naruto..." Sakura said his name with exasperation. "You're an idiot."

"Hey, sorry that I was more interested in playing strategy games than in learning weaponized biochemistry. I probably _should_ have paid attention, since the next time I cleaned a bathroom I mixed bleach, ammonia and chlorine..."

"Literally, what the fuck." Tayuya's insults didn't end there, though. The highlights of her tirade included, "shit-festered maggot dick," "you are the reason that the gods died," and the mammoth, "you ass-jacked moron whose cunt-crunching brain fucking died of shame and rotted in your piss-ridden skull."

Kitamon no Tayuya had no problems with expressing herself comfortably. Everyone else, sans Naruto, seemed slightly uncomfortable with the ease of her speech.

"Oh, that's nothing. This _other_ time..." He began, inviting even more trouble into his eardrums.

"Naruto."

"Yes, dear?"

"Shut up, or I'm going to kill you."

The blond grinned like a madman. "You'll need to make me stop, then. Good luck with that, by the way."

"We're coming up on one of Orochimaru's main bases." Itachi said. "Unless operational silence means nothing to you, I'd suggest quiet."

"Main base or not, I see no reason why we shouldn't move the same way we always have." Several _Kage Bunshin_ appeared, moving away from the group.

They would prep the back half of a group of Exit seals; their companion halves, the Door seals, were kept on slips of paper in one of Naruto's scrolls. The danger of possibly encountering Orochimaru mandated that they have some sort of getaway.

If all truth was to be told, though, Naruto _wanted_ the White Snake to be here. He wanted to carve into Orochimaru's flesh, before he killed the man, just how much sadness and suffering he'd wrought in the world. He wanted blood for Sasuke, for Kimimaro, for Jiraiya. He wanted blood for Kakashi, for the Sandaime, for his father. For the families of all his victims, and the victims themselves. He wanted blood for the pain Orochimaru had given to Tayuya. And, as he remembered how a song went, he smiled inwardly; Bon Scott was right.

 _"If you want blood...you've got it."_

In the time following the gods' deaths, a fair amount of technology and history had been lost, save for those precious few people who'd carefully recorded everything they could. Certain weapons of war no longer existed, Naruto had never seen a, "gun," or a, "tank," and perhaps it was intentional that no creation manuals survived the destruction of the ancient order. Other mysteries included the Biju, constructs of chakra who historically outdated the Rikudo Sennin's first appearance two thousand years ago. Perhaps, then, it was through the Biju that the sage had discovered chakra in himself, and thereby in all humans?

Naruto shook those thoughts from his mind. He could reminisce about technology from the past at another time, after this base was destroyed and its cursed, victimized inhabitants were put down out of mercy.

Nobody deserved to live the life of a test subject, their very existence dependent on the whims of another human being.

* * *

"So, how do you think they're doing?" Jiraiya asked.

"Well, we haven't heard back from them so far, so...I'm going to assume that they're doing alright." Tsunade answered. "Now get out of my window."

Jiraiya had been sitting in the windowsill that had practically been made to accommodate him years earlier, when he'd been a child and a student on the Sandaime's team. Standing up, and feeling the sunshine and breeze coming in through the open window, he grinned. Walking around to stand in front of his former teammate, he responded in the that way only he could.

"Aw, and here I thought you might want to snuggle up, hime-sama."

"In your dreams, maybe."

"No, you don't have your Genjutsu on in my dreams. You can fool my eyes, but not my brain or my heart. Vanity is a sin, madame Hokage..."

"So is lechery, but I don't see you offering penance for your crimes of morality."

"Crime of _passion,_ Tsunade. To say that a straight man, such as myself, shouldn't be remotely aroused by you...that's lunacy. Implying that something is immoral means that it goes against my better nature, but you should know better than anyone that my lewd side _is_ my better nature."

"And to think that I won't beat you into the ground for that, that's stupidity too. As to be expected from Jiraiya, Lord Commander of the Dunce Corps. May your perverted glory live forever in infamy, and may you get a swift kick to the balls every time you peep on a woman in an onsen."

"There's not many left that I'm allowed in. You know that, right? I have to perform some of the most advanced henge on the planet if I want to make sure that I don't get thrown out right after checking in. They know all my usual disguises, and it makes me sad. There are worse things than the pleasures of the flesh."

"Said, of course, by a man who's devoted his life to them. What was that Naruto told me about, something you said on the way to finding me...something about the three W's? 'Avoid wine, women, and worthless spending.' And then he caught you, not even fifteen minutes later, having spent _his_ money on a pair of courtesans and a case of sake from the southeastern region of Hi no Kuni?"

"Well, when you put it like that, it makes me sound like a hypocrite."

"You numbskull, you _are_ a hypocrite. Do you remember the battle at the Tetsuga Plains? You told us to run away and get help, and then you managed to kill them all before we could come back. You had a sword shoved through your gut, six kunai in your back, there was a shuriken stuck in your forehead after it bit through your hitai-ate, and you were still standing like nothing was wrong in the world."

"Konoha emphasizes that ninja fight harder when they're fighting to protect people who they care about. It just so happens, amazingly, that I care about you, and I used to care about Orochimaru."

"Not that you could ever show it normally. You tried to steal my underwear, and you kept challenging Orochimaru to fights until you got beaten into the ground."

"What can I say? I was a stupid kid."

Jiraiya looked like he was going to talk more, but he was interrupted by a flying paper crane. Without needing to open it, he knew that it was a message from Konan; he still had to learn what that message _was,_ however. Taking the crane and unfolding it carefully, the two Sannin were shown a chakra-projected image of Konan.

"Jiraiya-sensei! Naruto and...in trouble. I've been track..."

It looked like most of the message had been eaten up to allow the origami craft to travel, but Jiraiya kept listening.

"Itachi...backing them...Otogakure main base..."

With the kind of speed possessed only by a man whose blood has turned to ice, Jiraiya crumpled up the paper and set it on fire. The projection of his younger lover disappeared, and Tsunade looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Your girl isn't just one of those orphans you raised and taught...but she's a member of the _Akatsuki?_ Are you fucking-"

"Now is _not_ the time, Tsunade. You heard her message, the same as I did. So unless you want to keep me here, I'm going to Oto, and I'm going to get those kids the hell out of there."

She relented, thankfully silent.

"I'll see you when I get back." He offered. "We'll talk as much as you want, after that."

The political ramifications here were astounding, and not in a good way. Orochimaru was one of the most dangerous nukenin Konoha had ever produced, ranked alongside Uchiha Madara and his 'second coming,' Itachi. She had inadvertently sent against him: one of his former kunoichi, two members of the Hyuuga clan, the last remaining loyal Uchiha, her apprentice, the village's only Jinchuriki, and the man's own son.

If he got his hands on any of them...no, she couldn't think like that. She had to trust in them.

It was no secret to her that Sai was her second bastard son; nobody else in Konoha had that shade of skin, and she'd felt the _henge_ over his eyes that made them appear wholly black.

If she lost any one of those ninja, then the metaphorical walls would come crumbling down around her.

* * *

They had split up, against Naruto's personal will. Itachi, Maya, Hinata, and Neji had branched off, leaving the original Genin of Team Seven with Tayuya and Sai. The quintet had walked down the hallways, finding them eerily empty, before they came into a medium-sized room carved out from the ground around them. Entering it, they found it to be just as unoccupied as the ones they'd passed earlier.

"Why do I get the feeling that even though there's more of us, we're less protected?" Sakura asked. "I mean, for god's sake, we have Naruto _and_ Sasuke. And I'm Tsunade-sama's apprentice, and Tayuya-san is a Jounin, and Sai is an Anbu."

"Maybe you just feel a little outclassed?" Sai offered. "Your primary role is to be a medic, not to fight on the front lines. While you've received training from the Hokage, she was also not very effective outside of Taijutsu. I would suggest talking to your former Jounin-sensei and learning elemental techniques from him."

"Sai, Sakura, be quiet. We don't want to-"

"Alert someone?" Orochimaru's voice rang out behind them, finishing Naruto's sentence. "You've gotten taller, all of you. It's nice to see you again, Tayuya-chan. You got rid of my Infuin, didn't you? That's a shame."

"I finally felt free." Tayuya said, her hands trembling. "I finally thought that every last part of the filth you made me feel when I used that seal, or acted on your orders, was gone."

This was the first time she'd come face-to-face with her former master since Jiraiya had found her in the decapitated forest. Though she no longer owed him fealty, forced by a seal or otherwise, the sheer weight of his presence was shaking her faith in herself.

"Tayuya...if you can't fight, stay back. I'll make sure he can't get to you, no matter what."

"Strong words. You know, Naruto-kun, you remind me very much of Jiraiya...though, I will say, you're certainly a more accomplished ninja than he was at your age. He grew up in a time of war, and it shaped his desire for peace. He wants to eliminate hatred from the world, so that we can all live in harmony. You, though...you've beaten four Jinchuriki. You killed an immortal. The demon inside of you must _love_ having you as its host, driving your rage so deep into the world. You can hide behind your kindness and your love, the Will of Fire, and whatever else you choose, but the truth is obvious. You seek the brutality of battle. You want to exert your dominance over all life, over this life."

"You've talked enough." Naruto said. "It's time to settle things."

Naruto thought back to how life had felt above the ground, before entering this base. How today was warm, for mid-September, but not unbearably so; the wind had been cool and gentle on his cheeks, and the sun high overhead. It was beautiful. Releasing the Slog Seal, Naruto's thoughts were the same as the beasts inside of him.

Today was a good day to die.


	37. Rage Against the Dying of the Light

**Hey, I'm back with another chapter. Don't you just love this return to rapid-fire updates? I sure as shit do. I will say, this chapter is back to my usual standard of length...but I don't know about the integrity of it, as far as its content goes. It's necessary to close out the arc, and set up the next one, but I still feel a bit iffy about it.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. OneLunchMan: You're absolutely right. I worry that this chapter isn't quite up to standard, but I'm also rushing a little bit to move on to the end of the timeskip and the functional beginning of Shippuden in the canon timeline...oh well. Hopefully, I'll still impress.**

 **2\. Lord Bedhead: Thanks for catching that typo, I'll go back and fix it once I publish this chapter. Jiraiya/Konan is unsettling to me as well; that's part of the reason why I made it that way, beyond just some explanation that she's friendly to him because he's her sensei. Characters should be written like they're real people, and real people will often do things that make others start to fidget when they're around.**

 **Sai, I feel, is just about the most moldable character in canon. He's a literal blank slate, and I'm not unconvinced that in canon his list of directions for, "how to make friends," isn't just a string of different insults he can throw at people. We aren't gods, though I realize I'm setting this up as some kind of far-flung future and that's an easy mistake to read. Be aware, though: if that's your thought process, at some point in this fic I'm gonna pull the rug out from underneath your feet. When this fic refers to, "the dead gods," it quite literally refers to an event that Antal Dara insinuates as involving, "the weapons of men and demons."**

 **"Today is a Good Day to Die" is the name of an instrumental song by Manowar, and it's also the first half of my own personal mantra: "Today is a good day to die, but tomorrow will be better."**

 **3\. SaKreD4LIFE: You know, I'd belive that. Kishimoto's done dumber stuff to meet deadlines. Do I have proof of what? No. But I'm sure that's true regardless.**

 **4\. Drake Vallion: Secret bases, in _Pokemon,_ are a fucking pain in the ass. Like, for real. Also, as I mentioned in the review above, this story is/is not in some kind of future setting, and it most certainly has to do with the appearance of the last survivor of the dead gods, Antal Dara. What part he has to play is yet for you to discover, but rest assured...I'll think of something. As for Sai's attitude, I gave a few lines toward the end of the chapter that may help explain that, and sets up his role in the next arc.**

 **5\. Noahendless: Will they? Doubtlessly. Do I want them to? Eh, I'm ambivalent. Canon really kind of sets them up, even at the very beginning, to become the inheritors of the Sannins' will. Sakura gets to live the life of love with her husband that Tsunade never reached. Sasuke is Orochimaru's redemption, for better or worse. Naruto is able to bring about the peace that Jiraiya spent years searching for in the midst of war, and gave his life to give Naruto the means to achieve it.**

 **Thanks for your continued support!**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"You've gotten stronger, Naruto-kun. I'm impressed."

Though the battle was serious, Orochimaru continued to talk idly. His _Kusanagi_ blade blocked Sasuke's chokuto and Sai's tanto, though he wisely moved it aside and dodged out of the way whenever Naruto's falx came whistling through the air. The blond's sword was designed to tear through other weapons, and a katana was flimsy in comparison to the thick, rough-hewn metal of Naruto's corrupted blade.

"Not strong enough."

"Ah, but that's not true. Strength comes from willpower, something that you've shown in spades!" The White Snake countered with words, and jutsu. "Doton: Mori!"

A spear made of rock shot forward, and Orochimaru laughed when it was splintered by a Raiton jutsu that Sasuke performed. Naruto sheathed his sword, preparing to begin a new offensive.

"So show me your force of will, Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun! Let me see how the father compares to the son, and the sun to the moon!"

The two teens looked at each other, both performing the same trio of hand seals: Ox. Rabbit. Monkey.

"Chidori!" They called out the technique's name, the chirping sounds amplified by their closeness.

"Huh? When did Naruto learn..." Sakura began to ask, but she couldn't hear herself over the noise.

"Sakura-san, focus on the battle. Where, or how, Naruto learned that technique, is irrelevant. You need to think about what you can do to help them."

She was fast, she was strong, and she was book-smart. Her chakra scalpels could cut through his body, but he was adept at body-replacement Ninjutsu. It was part of what made him so difficult to kill.

"Futon: Shinkuu Iki!" Orochimaru said, exhaling. The Vacuum Breath technique would only work as long as Orochimaru didn't take another breath, but that left plenty of time.

The twin Chidori dissipated as they came into contact with the layer of wind chakra around Orochimaru's body, but Naruto's natural claws were long enough to cut lines into the rogue Sannin's chest.

"First blood." The Jinchuriki snarled, blocking the _Kusanagi_ mid-swing with the palm of his hand. "Now it's a party."

He backed away, the wound on his hand healing seamlessly.

"My, my, I must be slipping. Even though it's a trivial wound, I've been hurt so soon? You really have improved. Katon: Katsudan!"

"Suiton: Suiryudan!"

The water dragon met the explosive bullet head-on, and followed though to narrowly miss Orochimaru's torso. The blast from Orochimaru's jutsu made both of the Chunin in the group shield their eyes, but Naruto and Sai kept moving. They kept him away from Tayuya's place near the center of the room, where old memories and fears were still preying on her mind.

"The way you move...all you're wielding is a tanto, but the force behind your blows is genetic. Tsunade's second son, turned into one of Danzo's toys in Ne?"

"Be silent, and die." Sai commanded, the nearest thing to anger that anyone in the room had ever heard him say.

"Ah, that must be it, then. You didn't tell them even that half of the truth, did you? Son of two members of the Sannin, bastard baby half-brother to the Yondaime Hokage, and thereby an uncle to the nephew nine months older than you...one Uzumaki Naruto. Whether or not they thought about it, you would have been content never to say anything...isn't that right, my son?"

Black eyes became yellow, with slit pupils that were visibly reminiscent of Naruto's stage one cloaked state.

"Don't you _dare_ call me your child." Sai growled, his face twisting in rage. "All that I have is thanks to Danzo-sama, and Naruto-senpai. The only things I got from you were these cursed eyes...and a thirst that can never be quenched."

"Then coil and strike, young viper."

Before Orochimaru could react, Sai had gotten behind him, and the blunted tanto was poking through the front of the nukenin's sternum. The Hebi Sennin vanished, regurgitating a new body on the other side of the room.

"You'll have to do better than that. The sins of the father will pass to the son...wouldn't that be easier? To take up my mantle, to live in the pursuit of knowledge?"

"The pursuit of power." Sai corrected him. "That's what you're really after."

"Knowledge, power...it doesn't matter." Orochimaru said. "The village cast me out for the steps I've taken on my path. They refused to believe that I could possibly be of help to them."

"Your experiments were immoral." Naruto countered, having heard about them from Jiraiya. "You used living men and women for your test subjects, without their consent. You kidnapped children. You've murdered dozens, if not hundreds, of people. Konoha didn't need the help of a madman like you."

"Cute, coming from the one who let his lover take a mortal blow for him in order to kill a Kage."

"Sasuke, Sakura, find the others. Sai, guard Tayuya."

"Naruto, what are you-" Sasuke didn't get to finish his question.

"Do as I say!" He yelled.

With hurt in his eyes, Sasuke turned and took Sakura's hand in his own, the pair running out from the room; Orochimaru's halfhearted attack at them was deflected easily, Naruto moving to strike it down.

"Sai, don't worry. None of us give a shit who your parents are. We've spent months together, fighting...it's time I put my faith in you, for real. You have all the copies of my Door seals, right? You're leaving too. When you find the others, you're giving them out and using them. You're in charge now."

"Taicho?"

"I can't fight seriously when there's other people nearby."

"No! I'm not leaving you!" Tayuya said, standing up at last.

She had bitten her lip until she bled, and then all the way through; the Sanbi had healed the injury, but the blood still stained her fair skin. She knew _exactly_ what Naruto was preparing to do, and she would have none of it.

"I'll be fine." Naruto countered. "You know me, Tayuya-chan. No matter what, I've always come back to you, haven't I?"

Sai performed a _kawarimi_ with Tayuya in tow, the pair vanishing with their leader's words still in the air. The only people left, now, were Naruto and Orochimaru.

"You seem rather attached to him." Orochimaru noted. "And to Tayuya. I'm glad that they could find someone in their lives like you."

"You bastard, you don't actually care. Stop fucking with me and just _fight,_ goddammit."

"Fine, then. I hope you're as prepared as you sound, Naruto-kun...Suiton: Hari Ori!"

As needles of water shot at him from all sides, Naruto charged his body with Raiton chakra and felt the water dissipate around him; he'd learned from Orochimaru's trick with the Chidori and Futon chakra.

"Katon: Ue Kara Shi!" Naruto called out.

The Death From Above technique did exactly what its name implied, the ceiling lit aflame and that fire sent crashing down to the ground around them. Orochimaru rushed forward, to the technique's dead zone around Naruto, and the blond caught the _Kusanagi_ with his teeth before biting down hard enough that the White Snake couldn't pull it from his mouth. Then the falx was in his hand, a vicious swing curving the backwards blade into Orochimaru's side and gutting him. The Sannin was hard to pin down, however, neck bending backwards to spew out another body. Naruto relinquished the sword in his mouth, running a finger over his bleeding gums as they healed.

"Slimy bastard."

"Snakes are dry and scaly, not slime-ridden like those toads you and Jiraiya use."

"Oh, like I _give a fuck._ " Naruto haphazardly threw several shuriken and kunai throughout the room, unsurprised when Orochimaru managed to dodge them all.

"Your aim needs work, Naruto-kun."

"How's this for an answer? Raiton: Raigen'ya!"

The field of lightning sprung up, electricity linking each piece of fallen metal that Naruto had strewn around them.

"You've improved upon Jiraiya's design with the technique...this killed plenty of ninja during the Second War."

"Maybe I can add one more to the tally, then."

"We'll see about that, Naruto-kun."

That was when Orochimaru felt it, for the first time since he'd infiltrated the Chunin Exams and faced off against Naruto in the Forest of Death; this time, though, it was...purer. More volatile, more violent. The Kyuubi no Kitsune's chakras, now combined once again, formed a miasma around Naruto's body. As he placed his falx on his back once more, he unsealed a sword Orochimaru hadn't seen before, and unsheathed it.

His grandfather's blade, the _Yama no O-Kyuuden._ He hadn't had much practice with it, preferring the raw brutality of his chosen weapon, but his plan required a straight blade.

"Do you know why Danzo killed my family?" He asked, running a thumb along his Uzushiogakure hitai-ate. "It was because he was afraid of them, and he had every right to be. Allies or not, the Uzumaki were masters of Fuinjutsu, greater than you or Jiraiya could ever hope to be. And I've been to Uzushio. I took their forbidden scroll, filled with sealing arts. And do you know what I learned?"

Silence filled the air as Naruto ran through hand seals. Dog. Tiger. Horse. Dragon. Dog. Boar. Rabbit. Ox. Tiger. Orochimaru lost track, no longer watching the younger man's hands move.

"I learned that, through sealing, anything is possible. Jiki Fuin: Bansho Ten'in!"

The Magnetic Seal: Heavenly Summons of All Creation was a technique Naruto had created after hearing Fukasaku speak about the powers of the Rikudo Sennin, and was named after the second ability of the Deva Path. He was particularly proud of it.

It pulled Orochimaru forward, as he was unable to avoid or resist the technique. As Naruto's familial blade pierced through his kidney, all the weapons he'd used in the _Raigen'ya_ came flying as well, piercing the White Snake in his back and electrocuting him. This time, however, Naruto was unable to react quickly enough to dodge the Futon-enhanced blade that sent him reeling as it bit through his left arm and into his chest.

Naruto looked down at the stump of his severed arm, swearing. The Kyuubi might have been on to something with its talk about bad luck...it was a good thing he'd come prepared, though. He was in his element, now; he understood how Yagura must have felt, chained and brutalized. He would probably survive this. Orochimaru hopefully wouldn't. Still, there was only one way to find out.

He didn't have time to reattach his arm, even if he had the chakra to spare. This was do-or-die, and Naruto decided that he would much rather, "do," than, "die," particularly this far from home. It was time for him to test his mettle.

Madness reigned in the hall of the mountain king.

* * *

"Take me back to him! He needs us!" Tayuya yelled, raging against Sai's grip and unable to move him backwards as he stalked through the hallways, searching for the remaining six members of their group.

"Of course he does." Sai responded, back to his normally emotionless self. "There's a reason why nobody has been able to kill Orochimaru, and it's because they've all acted on their own. Taicho knows exactly what he's doing. You broke down, Tayuya-san. Had you been able to fight, from the beginning, then the five of us would have stood a chance against him. He has done what the Will of Fire has dictated, however, and prioritized our safety over his own."

"And you're okay with that?"

"No." He admitted. "Though I hid it from him, he and I are family. His father was the child of the Hokage and her lover during the Second War, Kato Dan. I am the result of Orochimaru's desire for a...worthy successor, his child by Tsunade after the Kyuubi's attack on Konoha came to an end."

"So go back! Fight with him!"

"I...I can't. Once I have been given orders, I must follow them through to the end, no matter whether it results in my death or a teammate's. That is the first lesson of the Ne Anbu program: obedience. There is a seal, under my tongue, that forces me to comply with all orders I am given. Danzo-sama told me that Naruto would be my Taicho, that as the future Hokage it would be his job to work with Ne, which Danzo-sama intends to place in my care upon his death. Danzo-sama's order was to obey all of my Taicho's commands. I cannot disobey Danzo-sama, no matter how much I wish I could."

"Then let me go! I need him, I can't...I can't-"

"I can't let you go. He ordered me to protect you, and to do that, I need you here with me. We are escaping. Taicho left me in command...it wouldn't do any good to devalue his sacrifice by sending yourself towards death."

"I gave my life away to save him, once! I won't let him die to protect me!" Tayuya broke free at last, but inky snakes bound her limbs together.

"I am sorry, Tayuya-san, but you're coming with me whether you like it or not. All that you can do now is pray...not that he will win, but that he will survive."

It took five more minutes for them to locate the sextet that remained of their group, questioning glances leveled at them as Sai explained what was happening.

"He left me in charge." Sai said. "And he told me to make sure that we all get out safely. Itachi-san, Maya-san, I cannot force you to do anything, but as you are part of our group, I will give you the Door seals."

"Save him!" Tayuya cried. "If he's gone..."

Sai surveyed the massive arena-like room around them, seeing hundreds of corpses in various states of an Infuin transformation. The number could very well have been over a thousand, possibly as high as two, and even Itachi looked visibly exhausted.

"I will...trust in Naruto." The elder of the Uchiha brothers had a long, drawn-out coughing fit, taking the Door seal that Sai offered.

"What? No! No!"

"Tayuya...we're all worn thin. I'm sorry, but of all of us, Naruto's the only one who'd last more than five seconds against that snake." Neji huffed, sweat rolling down the side of his face.

"We use the seals on three." Sai said. "One, two...three."

All eight of them vanished, reappearing in the forest outside of the base. A white-haired figure was in the distance, coming toward them; as he got closer, they realized it was Jiraiya. The Gama Sennin was panting, having used up half of his chakra to run so far, so quickly, but when he surveyed the group before him, he didn't see anyone blond.

"Where's Naruto?"

"He..."

"Jiraiya, please...he's back there, he forced us to leave! He-"

The Sannin brushed past them all, resuming his mad dash, and right as he reached the edge of the entrance he was forced to leap back. All of them heard what sounded like a scream before the earth around them groaned in protest. Flames licked the world around them, and the easily-identifiable blast of an explosion resounded in the air.

"Everybody, move!" Sai ordered, shoving as many of the other ninja out of the way as he could, leaping to safety himself before the ground collapsed beneath them.

Nobody said anything as Jiraiya rejoined them. Nobody needed to say anything. Itachi and Maya broke away from the group, leaving to make their way back to Amegakure and report their failure to Pein; the news wouldn't be pleasant, and neither would the loss of the Kyuubi Jinchuriki. Sai led Sakura, Sasuke, Neji and Hinata, and they began the trek back to Konoha in abject silence. Sai's words haunted Tayuya's mind as she crumpled to the ground.

 _"All that you can do now is pray...not that he will win, but that he will survive."_

Jiraiya sank to his knees, and as Tayuya openly sobbed, he found that tears were rolling down his own face as well. He would need to go to Myobokuzan to erase Naruto's name from the registry of summoners, and tell Tsunade what had happened.

"I'm sorry." He said.

There was a list, far too long, of who that apology could be directed toward. A list of people to whom he would have to explain, painfully, that there wasn't likely to be a triumphant return for the boy who'd shouted for almost seventeen years that he would be the Hokage when he grew up. After fifteen minutes, with no sign of anyone attempting to leave the base's shattered remnants, Jiraiya picked up Tayuya and carried her on his back, her weakly continued tears matched by the heaviness of his heart.

* * *

It had been two weeks.

Quietly, Orochimaru thought to himself about the sheer narrowness of his survival. Without the time or space to summon his nearly impenetrable _Rashomon,_ he'd been forced to use the _Suiro no Jutsu_ on himself, the Water Prison providing just enough protection from Naruto's high-density concussive explosion that he'd gotten away with his arms in a decent-enough condition to regurgitate another body for himself, most of the rest of his torso and legs completely burnt.

Uzumaki Naruto was, truly, a man to be feared.

It wouldn't be long before the world took notice of the Kyuubi's lack of presence, signifying that Naruto was still alive and also foretelling Orochimaru's death, but the White Snake had been prepared for his end for a long, long time.

He'd begun his experiments because he, an orphan, didn't want anyone to suffer the same crushing loneliness he'd felt as a child. When Tsunade's brother Nawaki had died, followed by Jiraiya's parents and then Tsunade's lover, Dan...it had driven him, through grief, to pursue immortality for himself. Once he learned how to do that, he had thought, he would be able to give it to the people he cared about. None of them would ever need to fear losing him, or he them, ever again.

Somewhere along the line, though, that dream had been twisted. Whether it was the seals he used, the corruption of the snakes he summoned, or his own inner darkness, he had lost his way from the Will of Fire and worked his way into the shadows that flame cast.

He thought back to the time, more than a decade ago, when he'd found Tayuya in that small village in southern Tsuchi no Kuni. He'd placed her under a strong Genjutsu, and the compulsion to kill had been implanted deeply within that illusion. She'd succeeded marvelously, butchering man and woman and child alike, killing villagers left and right. She had been unstoppable, until she'd finally chased them all down and returned to him.

She had showed promise, even breaking the Genjutsu and its command to slaughter. She had hated him, tried to kill him, but her small body wouldn't have been able to do anything even if he'd been crippled and dying. He remembered his words to her, then, as he'd taken her with him.

 _"If you want to kill me...come with me. I will train you until you're strong enough to do so. Become my right hand and my guardian, and seek to take my place on the Basilisk's Throne. Learn what I have to teach you, and settle for hating me until you can finally end my life."_

She had done exceptionally well, the strongest member of her team after Kimimaro's illness had left him bedridden. In truth, he was proud of the distance she'd overcome, despite Naruto's accusation that he cared nothing for his underlings.

Orochimaru had a feeling that, just as he'd told her to, Tayuya would continue to hate him until the day she managed to end his life. He would have to make sure that he lived long enough for that eventuality to come to pass.

Staring at the two blue eyes placed in the jar before him, he shook himself from his reverie and watched as Naruto struggled against the machine that would continue to siphon off his chakra until he had enough to stay alive, but not to use in combat.

"Are you ready, Naruto-kun? Ah, I can't _wait_ to find out all the secrets that your blood has in store for me!"

Blind, bound, naked and hopeless, only rage would keep Naruto alive in this place.


	38. Clanarchy in the UK (United Konoha)

**Train kept a rollin', all night long. Train kept a rollin', all night long.**

 **If any of you ever wonder about how I manage to get these updates out so quickly, it's because I don't really pause in my writing. As soon as I finish and publish a chapter, I begin writing the next one after about a half-hour break. I just...idk, I enjoy writing. Hopefully, if you've made it this far into the fic, you enjoy reading my writing. Thanks for that!**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. SingleSoul: Is it that unbelievable? I tried to frame it, over the last few chapters, that Naruto had doubts about how he (as an effective Jiraiya stand-in) would fare against Orochimaru, who historically was always able to beat Jiraiya in direct confrontations. While it's true that Naruto is vastly powerful in this fic compared to canon, and he didn't really use the Kyuubi's power beyond going into a cloaked state, I figure that it's not exactly fair if Naruto gets to have every victory, like when Itachi trashed him in Kumo. In the same way that Naruto consistently beat Jiraiya, because Jiraiya was always holding back, and Naruto wasn't...Orochimaru held back from killing Naruto, but not in defending himself.**

 **It was also done to add some poignance to the Kyuubi's remark about bad luck, regarding the loss of Naruto's arm and Naruto's inability to perform one-handed seals. If he retrieved the arm and reattached it, Orochimaru would have been able to go in for the coup de grace. Since that's not an option, Naruto did what any self-respecting prankster-turned-ninja would do, and committed arson on a terraforming scale.**

 **Orochimaru and the _Suiro no Jutsu_ is a weak explanation at first, but you have to take the physics into account. Water doesn't evaporate instantaneously when exposed to heat; it has to be brought to a boil. Chakra can also be used to reinforce the body, as showcased with the Inner Gates in canon, allowing Orochimaru to strengthen himself. Orochimaru is also a master of Senjutsu, despite the inability of some/many (?) of his host bodies being too frail to perform its techniques. So, if Orochimaru protects himself in a wide ball of water to absorb the heat and force of the explosion, gathers natural energy to create Senjutsu chakra, and possibly opens at least the first of the Inner Gates, his body would be fortified enough to both endure the explosions, and to survive the heat once the Water Prison became hot enough to begin boiling him alive.**

 **You don't have to agree with me, but that's my explanation for it. Keep in mind, the scene was effectively written from Naruto's point of view, and I purposefully hid the final events leading up to the explosion. Thank you, however, for the vote of confidence in Naruto's skills. I'm sure he appreciates it, and as you'll see at the end of this chapter...that poor son of a gun needs all the help he can get.**

 **2\. Lord Bedhead: Eh, expected or not, it was necessary to advance the plot and now that I've ripped off my, "goody-two-shoes-author gloves," it's time to start the party that will be Shippuden. Is Konoha ready for life without Naruto? Is the world ready for an Akatsuki who will hunt high and low to find the missing Jinchuriki, rather than believe in his death and wait for the reappearance of Zen no Kurama?**

 **The answer, of course, is, "no."**

 **3\. Gundaago: Remember, several chapters back, when I said in an AN that an author has a fundamental choice sometimes, on whether they want to be Stephen King or George R.R. Martin? That choice is being made. Will I kill willy-nilly? No, but... [:**

 **4\. Drake Vallion: Orochimaru, being disturbing? Who'd have seen that coming, am I right? I hope this chapter lives up to your belief that things have become more interesting. Fuck, I love politics.**

 **5\. RahvinsCage: I mean, as long as you went back to read the chapter, it's all good, my man. And...yeah, it was. My music taste is incredibly eclectic, and it ranges from death metal to gangsta rap, (not as big a musical gap as it might seem,) to bluegrass, and I'd be lying if I tried to say that I don't have anything by Britney Spears. Music, possibly even more than writing, is a passion of mine.**

 **6\. dragzxx: Thanks for leaving that slew of reviews, but I'm only going to answer the one for the last chapter. Was taking Naruto's eyes really necessary? No. But, if you've read the Wheel of Time series, (and you should, it's one of my favorite high fantasy titles,) you'll see that a common trend among Ta'veren is that they become scarred by loss in some way. Lews Therin Telamon is corrupted by magic and kills his wife and family. Rand Al'Thor loses his hand. Matrim Cauthon sacrifices an eye.**

 **As for Kakashi...well, you'll see a bit of it with this chapter, but not all of it. He won't just look at the end result, but look back to find the origin of the problem. And on Itachi's decision to leave Naruto behind: as Neji said, last chapter, they were out of chakra and physically exhausted from killing hundreds, possibly over a thousand, of Orochimaru's experiments in the nature of cursed seals and their abilities. Even if Itachi had _wanted_ to do something, which would be in his character to do, he wouldn't have been able to do much about it.**

 **Well, those were some decently long responses. Time to get to work writing the next chapter.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

There was complete, utter chaos in Konoha's management. A council had been convened, the heads and heirs of each prominent ninja clan present with the three elders who'd fought in the First Great War. Sai, Tayuya, Jiraiya, Neji, Sasuke and Sakura were there as well, and Tsunade called them to order. This was going to be bad; she knew that already. The only thing she couldn't tell was just how quickly the shit would hit the fan, or how poorly it would go for her.

"Hokage-sama." Danzo began. "It is my understanding that, at the end of the mission to which you assigned him, we lost Uzumaki Naruto. Would you care to explain?"

"He followed orders." Tsunade said, callous to the pain in her heart. "His mission, with a team that he selected, was to eliminate as many of Orochimaru's bases as he could, and to avoid conflict if possible. All of his teammates are present at this meeting. Their explanation was that Orochimaru engaged them, and Naruto realized that a battle would only result in the death or capture of at least one of his teammates. So he forced them to flee, using his skill at Fuinjutsu, and then made the base collapse with both Orochimaru and himself inside of it."

"And we're supposed to believe that killed them? Either one of them?" Shikamaru spoke up from his seat, beside his father. "I've known Naruto for years, and after the second time he was held back in the academy, I was his classmate. There's two very important, fundamental things I learned about him, Hokage-sama. He's not very smart, and it's virtually impossible to put him down. I was present when he fought the Ichibi by himself, _by himself,_ almost two years ago. He had one jutsu that he could use competently, the Kage Bunshin, and he still managed to wipe the floor with a Biju."

Shikamaru was groaning internally. Temari would get to be the bearer of bad news on her way back to Suna, and the Nara clan heir didn't want to know how the blonde's older brother would react when he found out.

"And Orochimaru, as all of us are well aware," Shikaku said, knowing that his son was finished, "is infamous for his talent to avoid dying, even if only by a hair's width. Looking at the situation from all possible ending results, whether both are dead, both survived, Orochimaru is dead and Naruto survived, or Orochimaru survived and Naruto is dead...their mutual survival seems the most likely option to me. A Jinchuriki has an abnormally fast healing rate, able to recover from normally mortal wounds in mere seconds. Orochimaru can create another body for himself with Ninjutsu. Even if they're both dead, that speaks purely of Naruto's capability with sealing and explosives."

"Also, if he's dead, it means that the Kyuubi will reform and begin to rampage in less than a year." Danzo added.

"Are you suggesting that we wait for a year to begin searching for Naruto?" Kakashi asked, staring pointedly.

"No, absolutely not. If there is a body, it must be recovered. If he is alive, he must be brought back at all costs. He is a ninja of Konoha, and the strongest Jinchuriki in our history. If for no other reason than to prevent others from getting a hold on him, we _must_ get him back."

"Naruto has ended up politically deft, though." Jiraiya said. "His friendship with the Kazekage is what allowed us to rebuild so peacefully after the failed invasion. He fought in Kirigakure's rebellion, and has close ties with both the Mizukage and her guards. In Kumogakure, he's on friendly terms with both of their Jinchuriki, which is what allowed us to have an alliance with Kumo...even after the Hyuuga Incident, twelve years ago."

"I do not trust those alliances to crumble, now that he is absent from the village. However, I believe that we should put it to a vote, as to whether he should be listed as killed or missing in action."

The split was approximately seventy-five percent in favor of, "missing in action," and twenty-five percent for, "killed in action."

"Very well, then. It has been decided that Jounin Uzumaki Naruto has gone missing in action, and resources will be allocated to searching for him. The team that he led is to remain in the village proper until such time as they are called upon for a mission."

"Hokage-sama." Hiashi spoke, surprising several of those present. The Hyuuga clan head did not talk idly. "You said this was a mission, which means it was you who appointed Naruto to the task."

"That is correct." Tsunade answered, worried about where the conversation was headed.

"Rather than sending Anbu, you allowed him to select six ninja. This list not only included his teammates who have fought and been defeated by Orochimaru before, as the cursed seal on Uchiha Sasuke proves, but also my daughter and nephew. In addition, Kitamon no Tayuya, one of Orochimaru's former guardians, was sent on the mission, as was an agent of Ne."

"That is also correct." Tsunade said. "Tayuya, as a former member of Orochimaru's personal guard, knows the locations of all of his lairs. Her information would have been more accurate, I believed, than the general map we possessed."

"You willingly sent three wielders of Kekkei Genkai, two Jinchuriki, your own apprentice, and a boy who isn't supposed to exist, on a mission to effectively hunt down the most dangerous nukenin from our village."

Hiashi's glare was harsh and judgemental, leaving Tsunade to feel small against it.

"That is correct." She replied, despite her worries.

"I raise a motion of no confidence toward Senju Tsunade, Godaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato." Hiashi said.

"I second the motion." Kakashi said.

Jiraiya grimaced. Things were about to go south, quickly, since Kakashi had finally declared the lack of loyalty towards Tsunade that everybody knew about. The Sharingan-wielder had many powerful allies, be they in the regular forces or the Anbu corps, that would be more than willing to flock to his banner against the Hokage if it truly came to a civil war like Kiri had seen. Though the cyclopean ninja was politically opposed to Danzo, the two of them shared a mutual distrust of Tsunade's leadership, and _that_ was where things would get rough.

"I second the motion." Danzo said, the words making Jiraiya squirm inside.

"I second the motion." Sarutobi Asuma said. "My father would be appalled."

"The same man who stood idly by as Orochimaru fled the village, while I chased after him and fought to subdue him?" Jiraiya growled, crushing his inner worry.

"The man who knew better than to fight for a lost cause. Why do you think Orochimaru was left to his own devices? It was because nobody could be trusted as capable of bringing him down." Kakashi said. "I went with you on that attempt to stop him. I saw him mangle you, and leave you alive out of _spite._ I hope that the dead gods are smiling on Naruto, because if you trained him to fight like you, then he never stood a chance."

"Taicho fought bravely." Sai spoke up, the entire room's gaze now focused on him. "Three of our group were incapacitated, leaving Sakura-san, Sasuke-san, Taicho and myself. When he realized that the battle was a lost cause, he decided that it was better for us to escape, and that he would hold Orochimaru off to ensure that we wouldn't risk capture or death."

Sai decided to omit the part Itachi had played in the mission, as that would never be looked fondly upon by the masses of Konoha.

"I believe that Taicho is still alive. However, as my loyalties are caught between Danzo-sama and Taicho, I must neither second the motion nor side with the Hokage."

Sai took Tayuya by her hand, and vanished in an inky _kawarimi._ The last that anyone saw of Danzo's student was a sickeningly wide grin, uncomfortably out of place on the young ninja's face.

The wizened, hawkish ninja couldn't help the rumbling laugh in his chest.

"That's why he will be the one to succeed me." He said.

In the wake of Sai's disappearance from the council, chaos resumed.

* * *

"Sai...what are we going to do?" Tayuya curled up into herself.

Life hadn't been the same since Naruto was gone, and it reminded her of when he'd disappeared into that so-called Labyrinth. She and Sai sat on the Hokage Monument, overlooking the village that Naruto had determined to become the protector of. Tayuya believed that Naruto was still alive.

She _had_ to believe that he was still alive.

"I'm going to obey Taicho's orders. I am going to protect you."

"How? You heard the Hokage, we're not-"

"My loyalties, as I said, are to Danzo and Taicho. Not the Hokage. Taicho left me in charge, and as the new leader of the mission, I have determined that we did not complete our assignment. Do you know what that means?"

"It means...you're going out there. After him."

"It means _we_ are going after him."

"By 'we,' how many people are you talking about?" A new voice said, and both teens turned around.

There, behind them, stood the rest of the ninja known as the "Rookie Twelve," who had competed in Konoha's Chunin Exams together. It was Kiba who had spoken, a boy Tayuya had only met once before: at the party they'd held before Naruto left the village, to train with Jiraiya. Sasuke, Sakura, Hinata, Neji, and Tenten were there, as well as the ones who she was less familiar with.

"What are you doing here?" Sai asked.

"What else? We're coming with you. All of us in the council, right now? They're clones. Naruto's tricks come in handy, sometimes." Sasuke smirked.

"Naruto is my brother. I'm not leaving him behind!" Tenten smiled.

"He's one troublesome son of a bitch, but knowing my luck, they'd make me Hokage if he doesn't turn back up. That's a lot _more_ troublesome." Shikamaru said.

"The village clipped my wings." Neji said. "Naruto gave them back to me. Whatever it takes, I'm bringing him back."

"I still gotta kick his ass for that fluke of a win in the Chunin Exam preliminaries." Kiba said. "He's not dyin', not until I can wipe that stupid grin off his face!"

"That's treason! Clan heirs or not, you'd be treated as criminals on your return!" Sai said, genuine shock on his face.

"Eh, Naruto's gonna be the next Hokage anyway, and we all know it." Ino said the words offhandedly, like they were true facts.

"Yeah, he'll pardon us for whatever the hell we do." Kiba laughed.

"Yosh! It would be most unyouthful of me to leave Naruto-kun behind!" Lee said, giving his standard thumbs-up and wide smile.

"The only question is, when are we leaving?" Sakura asked. "It'll have to be soon, before any of us can be called away on missions. And we can't all leave at the same place or time."

"We should leave notes for our parents, at least. That's the responsible thing to do."

"Shika, we're all Chunin here. Hell, Neji's a Jounin. We're adults, we're responsible. Right?"

"Kiba, you're about as responsible as a six-year-old."

"Oh, shut up, Shino."

Sai shook his head.

"Very well, then. If you will not be dissuaded, then we'll leave tonight. The guard changes are five minutes apart at each gate, so three groups of three and a group of four will make it out from each gate. The rotation begins at nine o'clock at the southern gate, and the pattern goes counterclockwise, so the team that leaves from the western gate will make their exit at nine-twenty. The teams will be the same as your Genin ones. Tayuya-san and I will join Sasuke-san and Sakura-san. Team Neji will leave from the southern gate. Team Ino-Shika-Cho will leave from the eastern gate. Team Sai will leave from the northern gate, and team Hinata will leave from the western gate. Any questions?"

"Where will we meet up?"

"Ne has a safety bunker that's ten miles north, and five miles northeast, of Konoha's northern gate. Fifteen miles north, five miles east, and five miles northeast from the western gate. Fifteen miles north, and five miles northwest, from the eastern gate. Five miles east, fifteen miles north, and five miles northwest from the southern gate. Anything else?"

There was no answer, so Sai continued.

"Prepare everything you think you'll need, there's no telling how long we'll be gone for. Be at your positions and out at your specified times, and...good luck. If everything goes well, we'll all have made our way to the bunker by daybreak."

* * *

"You know, Naruto-kun, it's fascinating."

The blond remained silent in his agony, only the flexing of his single wrist proof that he was both conscious and lucid.

"What's so fascinating, you ask? You, of course!" Orochimaru said. "Thanks to studying the retinal patterns of your eyes, and the DNA samples I've obtained from them, I've found out some _very_ interesting things about you."

Naruto's seal burned white-hot against his belly as dozens of needles injected liquids into him, and he could only assume they were various poisons that Orochimaru wanted to test due to his immunity to their more permanent effects. One in particular gave Naruto the feeling of ants biting up and down his leg, crawling as they ripped apart his flesh to chip at the bones underneath.

"For example, have you ever heard of the theory about fate-twisters? It's a newer term for the phenomena, but I doubt you would have understood what I was talking about if I said 'Ta'veren.' The gist of the theory is that some people, by luck or circumstance, have a way of...changing history as it's being made. When two or more of them clash, the results are catastrophic. It's been theorized that Uchiha Madara, and Senju Hashirama, were both Ta'veren. That's one reason why Konoha is so strong, because the two of them put aside their enmity and changed the future by creating the first hidden village."

Naruto, at this point, wasn't much of a conversationalist. When he had the control and composure to do so, he stayed silent throughout the medical torture that Orochimaru was putting him through. Other times, it broke him, and he screamed from the pain. The lack of eyesight was still a new sensation to him, different from simply being in the dark. It was painful, and frightening. More psychological than anything, of course but that was the worst part; Naruto could block out physical pain from his mind, before the Kyuubi healed him. He couldn't run from the paranoid fear that his time in Orochimaru's company was slowly inducing.

"The study of your genetic code, though...it proved the theory, Naruto-kun. There's something extraneous in your blood, something that shouldn't naturally be there. A gift that can't be given, only received. Whether it's due to your heritage, having your chakra shaped by a demonic entity while you were still in the womb, or having the Kyuubi sealed inside of you immediately postpartum, or something else...I couldn't say. But, the results are clear. You are one of those 'fate-twisters,' Naruto-kun. Tell me, how does that make you feel?"

Silence.

"You know, I know this sword's origin." Orochimaru said, picking up the _Yama no O-Kyuuden_. "Iwa-made, and given as a gift to Uzushio at the end of the Warring Clans Era. Its last known user was the Nidaime Uzukage, Uzumaki Josuke. Father of Uzumaki Kushina, and thereby your grandfather. Something tells me that you already knew that, though. You did say you'd been to your ancestral homeland, after all...back when you still spoke to me. Are you mad at me, Naruto-kun? Did I do something wrong?"

Yet again, the question was met by a distinct lack of noise from Naruto.

"I can't fix the problem if you don't tell me what's wrong, Naruto-kun. Would it help if I reattached your arm? I made sure to preserve it perfectly, and I know how well a Biju heals their host."

Orochimaru left to retrieve the limb, strapping it down before connecting its end to the stump that extended just a few inches beyond Naruto's shoulder. The immediate rush of pain, as his skin shredded and reattached itself to the missing arm, was enough to make him cry out.

"Ah, a response at last. Was that joy, Naruto-kun? Or would you rather not have the arm back? I can always take it off again, you know. Or, I can just carve you up with your grandfather's sword, instead. Really, I don't mind doing anything, or nothing. I'll leave it up to you to decide."

"Orochimaru-sama."

Naruto recognized Kabuto's voice, and while he couldn't see the traitorous medic, his very presence made the blond's blood boil.

"Yes, Kabuto-kun? As you can see, I'm somewhat busy. And before you ask, no, you're not allowed to play with him."

"Oh, no, my lord. Nothing of the sort. I was just going to give you the reports you'd asked for, regarding Hozuki Suigetsu, Juugo, and Uzumaki Karin."

"Ah. My apologies, Kabuto-kun, I've gotten so excited over certain discoveries that I forgot about asking you for those. Thank you, as always."

"You don't need to thank me, Orochimaru-sama. I'm simply doing my job, and repaying you for your kindness toward me."

Footsteps resounded as Kabuto presumably walked away, leaving Naruto alone with Orochimaru once again.

"Did you hear that, Naruto-kun? You didn't mistake yourself. Uzumaki Karin, your kinswoman, is one of my officers. Now, I know, you think that's just a fancy word for, 'test subject,' but I assure you, I treat her with the _utmost_ care. I know how rare it is, to be a member of your clan. I wouldn't want to risk losing her, now, would I? Perhaps, if she performs exceptionally well, I might let her come and visit you one day. Would you like that?"

Once more, abject silence filled the room as no response came from Naruto's lips. That was alright; Orochimaru assumed, correctly, that his most recent subject was in some state of shell-shock after hearing that there was another living, breathing Uzumaki in the world.


	39. The Way of Jie'toh

**Two chapters in 24 hours. What is a man, to a mob? What is a mob, to a king? What is a king, to a god? What is a god, to an atheist author?**

 **I just don't know, my friends. I'm fucking wiped, though. Hope you enjoy!**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. OneLunchMan: Shit's not just gonna hit the fan, it's gonna grind itself into the rotating mechanism and leave a permanent stench. Buy a new fan, Konoha citizens! I hear that IKEA has them on sale right now!**

 **And, yeah, Hiashi went off on her ass. When she allowed not only his oldest daughter, but also his dead brother's only child, to be thrown into danger on the same mission? That, in his mind, isn't just reckless...it's plain fuckin' stupid. I mean, put aside his anger at whatever the Hyuuga Elders would be doing, vis-a-vis some arranged marriage between first cousins whose fathers were identical twins. You're gonna throw an heiress to the most powerful family in your nation, and her only cousin, into a series of situations where they could run across a criminal/serial murderer who knows exactly how to surpass their abilities and murder them outright?**

 **Tsunade left the choice up to Naruto, but the burden of responsibility gets passed up to the top of the chain of command, which leaves her vulnerable to defamatory attacks and, given her record of service in this fic, the motion of no confidence that can leave her ousted from her seat as the Hokage.**

 **2\. tastybigsexy: I don't know, man. Think about it; you grow up an orphan, and one day more than fifteen years later a magic blue ball suddenly brings you three family members who have been lost in time and (unbeknownst to them,) possibly space as well? Then, more than a year later, you find out from someone keeping you prisoner and torturing you that you have _more_ family alive, even if it's just one person? I, personally, would be a bit too shell-shocked to worry about possible ramifications of my status in my captor's hands.**

 **3\. Lord Bedhead: I'm glad you're so impressed. I've been waiting to unleash the political shitstorm for so long now that it's painful. But, that having been said, now that it's here...I may hate politics, but goddammit, I grew up studying it, and holy shit do I love politics. Out of curiosity, what was your favorite part? And...fluff will come, eventually. It won't be NaruTayu fluff for several chapters, but I should probably use this time to set up some other pairings I've been thinking about, so I can use this time to do that. Sound good, my fluff-loving friend?**

 **4\. SaKreD4LIFE: Yeah, I can't think of any stories I've read, off of the top of my head, that had Naruto as Orochimaru's captive/actively being searched for during part/all of the timeskip between Part One & Shippuden. I could be wrong about that being the case, the internet is a vast place and FFN is a massive archive, but nothing comes to mind. Still, this is the last year of the timeskip; Naruto was fifteen when he left Konoha with Jiraiya, and is now almost seventeen.**

 **As far as Naruto's psyche becoming warped due to torture...I don't know, my friend. It would make sense, but Naruto also has the _Shiki Fuin_ to hide inside. However, I don't doubt that Kurama would attempt to corrupt Naruto in some way if that came to pass...so I guess we'll see as we go along. In the same way that I haven't touched on a lot of Tayuya's skills in this fic, which is something I regret and aim to correct in coming chapters, I may not wholly touch on Naruto's mental state for a while.**

 **Alright, this circus has played out long enough.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"Danzo! What's the meaning of this?" Tsunade asked, enraged.

She had called the head of the trio of elders, teammate of her sensei and student of her grandfather, to her office. Danzo was curious as to why she'd given him an official summons, but had come anyway; there was little to be gained from ignoring her, even as her deposition was imminent due to the motion of no confidence that had been leveled against her by Hyuuga Hiashi.

The only question, besides the one he was about to ask, was what Konoha would do after she was thrust out of office. It would be put to a vote, whether they would elect a new Hokage or rule by a collective council until Naruto's return. Though his history was less than amicable with a majority of the civilians, Danzo would enjoy putting them in their place by making Naruto the Rokudaime; they had deemed it appropriate to attack a Jinchuriki, potentially unleashing the Kyuubi. Regardless of his actions beforehand, or the thirty kills that Naruto had amassed prior to even being allowed into the ninja academy's program, that sort of action was short-sighted and moronic.

Quietly, Danzo had found them and ordered them to be slain. Why would he care anything for the insects who ate away at the leaves of the tree, leeching from its life force to procure their own? Civilians were the blight of any hidden village, and it was through their ignorance that Konoha had sunken so low. For too long, they had caused his homeland to suffer. They needed a Hokage who wouldn't allow their interests to conflict with those of the shinobi under his command, something that Tsunade had proved ineffective at managing.

"The meaning of what, dear princess?" Sarcasm was laced in the title that Danzo graced Tsunade with.

"Don't bullshit me. What did you tell that boy to do?" The Godaime's anger was palpable, but Danzo saw no need to tread lightly. Hokage or not, if she killed him, she would be cast out immediately

"Sai? I gave no orders. If I had to guess, he decided that Uzumaki Naruto's final orders took precedence over your command to remain in the village. Did something happen?"

"'Did something happen?'" She mocked his tone. "Did something happen? Of _course_ something happened! The Rookie Twelve are gone, and so are Tayuya and Sai!"

"This is the first I've heard of that. Did Shizune spike your sake this morning?"

"What-"

"Vodka is the answer, if your question was, 'what could she spike sake with.'"

"It wasn't. Whether or not the motion of no confidence goes through, I am still Hokage, so I would appreciate a bit more respect. My question was, 'what does that have to do with anything?'"

"Ah, a _much_ better question. The answer is, it has nothing to do with anything, just the same as the fact that our conversation has nothing to do with the matters at hand. If anything at all comes from the fact that all the most prominent clans' heirs are gone, along with Team Gai, your apprentice, and that reformed prisoner of war, it will mean nothing but another black mark upon your tenure. Obviously, the prodigal sons and daughters will not have the village levied against them as rogues, but I have to wonder about how far they can get without open, or even grudging, support from their village. It's rather exciting, don't you think?"

"Exciting?" Tsunade's face twisted in rage, and she had to resist the urge to attack the man who'd corrupted her sensei's dream for the village. "Are you out of your goddamned mind? What on earth could _possibly_ be exciting about this insanity?"

"Konoha is a tree. I command Ne, the roots that support the tree. You are the Hokage, the trunk of the tree that grows branches. The clan heads are the old, strong branches in the middle of the tree, and those children are the young shoots near the top. As the tree grows, so will they, and the two don't necessarily have to be congruent to be simultaneous. You and I, we're watching the future unfold before our eyes...can you not consider that exciting?"

"Oh, god, no. This is a national disaster."

"The Will of Fire is a tricky thing, princess. It can easily inspire those who believe in it to protect what they hold dear, because they believe others, in that moment, are more important than themselves. So, to, does it command those children to go out, and rush after their friend...because they not only believe that he's alive, but that only they will be able to save him. Perhaps you should try putting your faith in them?"

"Putting my- how the hell is that going to help me talk to the parents and explain _why_ their children all just went missing?"

"It's not. Good day, princess."

With that, Danzo walked away, leaving Tsunade in her office to fume at him.

* * *

"So, that's how it is." Jie Higurashi looked down at the short letter on his table, penned in Tenten's rough handwriting.

 _Otou-san, sorry for the vanishing act, but by now I'm sure you've heard about Naruto onii-chan's status as missing in action. Well, the rest of the Rookie Twelve and I are going out to look for him. Our first stop is a safety bunker, and from there, we'll be hunting down every last one of Orochimaru's bases to get him back. The next time you'll see me, he'll be right beside me, and we can all sit down to share a meal like old times._

 _I love you!_

 _-Tenten_

Higurashi couldn't help but laugh, though he wasn't certain whether that laughter was out of grief or pride. A group of ten Chunin, two Jounin and an Anbu, going after the most wanted man in Konoha's history?

No...they weren't going to hunt down Orochimaru. They were going to rescue Naruto, a far nobler and more appropriate goal. He walked around his house, to the front of his shop, where he flipped the sign on the door to read, "CLOSED." Adding to that, he took a piece of paper and wrote, "Until further notice." In a script that was much neater than his daughter's. Walking back inside, he locked the door, activating his security seals and traps. Then, unbidden, the ancient song of his ancestors filled his mind.

 _Wash the spears when the sun climbs high.  
_

 _Wash the spears when the sun climbs low._

 _Wash the spears. Who fears to die?_

 _Wash the spears...no one I know!_

 _Wash the spears while life holds true._

 _Wash the spears until life ends._

 _Wash the spears, life is a dream._

 _Wash the spears...all dreams must end._

 _Wash the spears 'til shade is gone._

 _Wash the spears 'til water runs dry._

 _Wash the spears. How far from home?_

 _Wash the spears...until I die!_

 _Wash the spears 'til the sun grows cold._

 _Wash the spears 'til water runs free._

 _Wash the spears while I still breathe._

 _Wash the spears...my steel is bright._

Slowly, he gathered up his most prized weaponry. His storage scroll was large, both in volume and in size, but that was trivial to him. It was, simply, his specialty to make and wield weapons, and the more he had with him, the more options he possessed. He was the last of his line...the last that would go by his clan's name, at any rate. Though he loved Tenten dearly, she was not of Jie blood.

Lifting up the tipless tanto from its stand over his forge's furnace, he felt the weight of his age. He had already been an old man, by ninja standards, when his family had all perished in the Second Great War. Once they had known that he was the last one left, the Sandaime Hokage and the Council of Clans had determined that it was better not to risk the extermination of another family. The tactic was obvious and well-known, the idea being that his twenty-five years of life still left him plenty young enough to sire an heir.

The war had ended when he was twenty-six, compared the the more famous Sannin's nineteen years at the time. He had been forty-four when the Kyuubi attacked, and it had nearly been seventeen years since that horrific night. His sixty-first birthday would come with the new spring, but Higurashi had grown tired of, once again, staying confined within the village.

His cage was a gilded one, to be sure. He owned a business, he made money, and he had even raised a daughter. He was proud of the life he'd led.

In the interim between his relegation to the village's defense, and his retirement after the end of the Third Great War, he had been approached by Danzo. The crippled elder, understanding Higurashi's frustration at not being allowed to fight for his village, had offered an alternative: to join Ne, and to take the battle to the shadows.

He had accepted, gladly. Orochimaru's experiments had been in their beginning stages, in those days, and Higurashi had worked alongside both the White Snake and the Ne commander in bringing them to fruition. Nothing overly serious had been done to him, though whether that was due to Orochimaru's kindness, or a simple lack of vile ideation on the Sannin's part, was unknown to him.

Idly, he hefted his father's ugrosh, an inelegant weapon that was a wide hammer at one side of the head, an axe on the other side of the hammer, and had twin spear-points at either end of its length. While it was one of many weapons that had been made with utility in mind, that same utility was what had ended up killing Jie Daiya; every weapon had a dedicated purpose, and attempting to do more than that intended purpose would eventually come back to bite whoever wielded it.

He was not the same man as his father, however. He had dedicated his life to weaponry, to its forging and upkeep.

"Would you be proud of me, I wonder? I wish you could have met either one of them."

Somewhere in Konoha, if they hadn't been killed in battle by now, there was at least one soldier in the Ne Anbu corps that Higurashi had fathered. It had seemed a small thing to do, providing Danzo with the insurance that his own death would not lead to the extinction of his bloodline. However, after his years spent raising Tenten, he couldn't help but feel as though those children had been lost to him.

That was why he was making these preparations. He would not lose another child. Slowly, methodically, he took the armor from its stand and began to buckle it back onto his body, piece by piece. It was jet-black, its matte finish refusing to shine in the light. Why so many ninja used bright, metallic colors that could catch moonlight and alert the enemy, he would never know.

The same words he had heard when he left Ne, he heard once more. How the man had gotten into his home, Higurashi didn't want to know, but it didn't matter.

"Jie Higurashi, one among the roots that serve to hold up Konoha...go with my blessing, and be at peace."

"As you command, Danzo-sama."

With that, he vanished.

The _Yami no Shinobi_ bowed his head in respect for his one-time subordinate, and disappeared from the home with no small amount of pride in his heart. It was as he had told Tsunade: he was watching the future unfold, right in front of his eyes. The roots that came from the great tree of Konoha, warmed as they were by the Will of Fire, ran deep into the earth.

* * *

"Well, we all made it." Shikamaru noted.

"Barely! If it weren't for the fact that those guards were already moving, your Kagemane wouldn't have succeeded!"

"I couldn't help it, Ino. Chouji wasn't exactly moving quickly."

"Sorry." The Akimichi heir said. "I was just...caught up in my feelings. I almost couldn't leave my parents behind! I-"

"We get it, you big baby." Ino groaned.

Sai looked on, amused.

"Whatever, we're all here now." Sakura said. "What's step two, Sai?"

The Ne commander-in-training turned his gaze to Tayuya.

"Do you still think it would be a bad idea to lay waste to that major base inside Hi no Kuni?"

The Genjutsu mistress shook her head.

"No. If anything, he's _got_ to be in one of his other major bases. They're dotted across the continent, but he has one in Hi no Kuni and two in Kaminari, Tsuchi, and Kusa, and three more in Oto."

"Three more? What kind of hidden village..." Sasuke grumbled.

"Otogakure isn't a hidden village. It's a network. Orochimaru puts a lot of pride in the misinformation campaign, because unless you know what to search for, you'll never find the secret bases. Kind of like how Sai stood outside of this bunker to make sure we all found it."

"And you know what to search for." Shikamaru pieced the knowledge together. "No hard feelings?"

"Nah." Tayuya honestly hadn't thought about her final mission as an Oto kunoichi in a long time. Her mind had been focused on more important things, like...Naruto.

She was trying to distance herself from her emotions, but the failure was readily apparent to anybody who looked. She wasn't the same without her boyfriend at her side, but she could barely choke her self-blame down enough to continue onward. There was only one course of action: she would kill Orochimaru herself.

"Alright. So, Sai, what's the plan? Are we out in the cold here, or are we gonna use some of Naruto's connections to try and hook us up with some extra firepower?" Kiba asked.

"Connections?" Sai answered the question with one of his own.

"Naruto is good friends with the Kazekage, but since the Akatsuki's been on the move, it'd be dangerous for him to be outside of his village." Shikamaru said. "But during the time you were gone with Jiraiya, didn't you two go to Kiri and Kumo?"

"Yes."

"Is there anyone in either place, anyone at all, who you think could be convinced to help us?"

Tayuya was quiet for a few moments while she thought about it, but then her face lit up a little bit.

"There are a few..."

"Where to first?" Sai asked. "If we're going to go, we'll need to do it quickly, before another Ne operative decides to check this bunker."

"Kiri. It's farther, but we'll make better time going there first than if we went to Kumo."

"Alright then, Tayuya-san. I will trust your judgement. We're sleeping now, but after we wake, we make for Kirigakure."

The thirteen ninja settled into the small, cramped space as Sai sealed off the bunker's entrance, and slept soundly.

* * *

"I have no words." Pein said, his projection standing before Itachi and Maya. "There are no words in the languages of men, gods, or demons, for the depth of your failure. Not only did you fail to even engage Orochimaru in the first place, but now the Kyuubi is lost. I expected better from you."

"Pein-sama, I-"

"Silence." Pein commanded. "As you have proven yourselves incapable of performing the task I set forth for you, I will do it myself."

Itachi's blood ran cold at those words.

"Are you certain that I cannot be allowed to make a second attempt?"

"Absolutely."

The chilling realization set in for Itachi: his leader was absolutely serious about going out to engage Orochimaru in battle. The Uchiha wasn't particularly worried about what would happen to Pein, having realized the secret to the Rinnegan's Rikudo techniques a long time ago. Rather, he was concerned for the innocents whose lives would inevitably be lost in the battle.

Itachi was an Anbu operative; he moved in and out from his missions as surgically as possible, leaving as few disturbances as he could. Pein was a juggernaut, an unstoppable force with the egregious amount of chakra that could be associated with a Jinchuriki, or possibly his Kekkei Genkai. He had never challenged the Akatsuki's leader himself, but Itachi had seen the power that Pein could wield with ease. With a very slight slip in his control, one jutsu could have catastrophic effects.

"It's not that this failure will be leveled against you, personally." Pein continued. "Failing to kill Orochimaru is a footnote compared to allowing the Kyuubi to go off of the radar."

"Yes...Pein-sama."

"Don't worry, Itachi. I will leave him alive. After all, he will be the last one whose Biju needs to be sealed away, due to the effort required. Any casualties will be the victims of Orochimaru's experiments. As I'm sure you know, their deaths would be mercies compared to allowing their suffering to continue."

"It is as you say."

"Unfortunately, I need time to prepare the amount of chakra that it will likely take me to mount a proper assault on Orochimaru's forces. It will be up to you to keep your eyes and ears out for information regarding his or the Kyuubi's whereabouts. This is the only way you can continue to protect him, do you understand?"

"I do."

"Excellent." Pein mused. "That will be all. Resume your duties."

The apparition vanished, leaving Itachi and Maya to their own devices.

"What do you think is going to happen, Itachi-kun?"

I think," Itachi began, his eyes directed down and to the side, "that the world will come to know pain."


	40. Sins of the Father

**Holy shit, I managed it. Technically this is only another, "two chapters in 24 hours," chapter, but it's my third chapter in two days, so cut a brother some slack, would you?**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. zafnak: It's the battle that never happened, inexplicably. I don't know why Pein wouldn't try to kill someone who knew the (relative) secrets of his organization, particularly since Orochimaru is the only (known) defector from the Akatsuki, if memory serves. Especially since Orochimaru told Sasuke to leave Team Kakashi alive in Shippuden because they could kill more Akatsuki members besides Sasori. If it were me, I'd be out for that son of a bitch.**

 **2\. OneLunchMan: Danzo is a career politician, no matter what his history as a shinobi says. He's a master of subterfuge, and his poker face could win a staring contest with a brick wall. And you're right, it's _definitely_ a grudge match. I had considered having a battle between Orochimaru and Itachi to further showcase just how above-the-cut Itachi is, but I think I've played him up pretty sufficiently. Now, it's time for Orochimaru to feel Pein.**

 **3\. Tsukoblue: The Omnipresent God is a master of all skills, and the learner of all knowledge. The wheel of Samsara dictates that what has been once, must be again. Pain is an effective teacher, and Pein is its greatest student. He knows.**

 **4\. Drake Vallion: Orochimaru knows what's coming for him. He just doesn't know how long he has, so he's doing the most he can with the time that's been given to him. You'll see a bit of what exactly it is that he's doing in this chapter...but Danzo is both evil, and not. "Evil," as Pein might say, is a word leveled at an enemy. Kinder words might be, "harsh," or, "unscrupulous," but they all indicate the same thing; Danzo doesn't exactly have much in the way of a moral compass. His single-minded goal is the continued existence of Konoha, and its place in the world as a great military power. No matter what he has to do to accomplish that goal, he will do it...or, rather, he'll order his soldiers to do it. He's kind of old.**

 **5\. SaKreD4LIFE: No, you didn't misunderstand the timeline; right now, in the fic, it's somewhere between the end of September/the beginning of October, which means Naruto's 17th birthday is two weeks away, at most. What was a timeskip between Part 1 and Shippuden is still in its second year, though approaching the end of that. I realize that's contrary to what I said to you in my AN last chapter, but I misspoke; sorry about the confusion.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

They were on the move as soon as they could be roused, Sai and Tayuya taking the point positions while the Rookie Twelve followed behind them. The forests of Hi no Kuni were blending together for Tayuya, though they were just different enough that she could recognize that they weren't going in circles. Their group was headed east, toward the beach, where they would start the journey by sea that would take them to Kirigakure.

"Have you been to Kirigakure before, Sai?" The redhead asked.

"Once. I assassinated a Jounin who was loyal to Yagura's regime, and openly anti-Konoha. Danzo-sama deemed him a threat, and soon after his death, word spread that you, Taicho, and Jiraiya-san were fighting in the rebellion." Sai responded.

"Wait a second. You're telling me that you snuck into an active war zone and performed an assassination, then got out undetected? What the fuck?"

"Taicho is my nephew, despite being older than me." Ne's prodigal son smiled, a gesture that was still unnerving to Tayuya. "Stealth runs in our family, it seems."

"What do you mean, Naruto is your nephew?" Hinata asked him.

She hadn't been present during the battle against Orochimaru, and Sai hadn't told her, Neji, or anyone else about what had happened. All that they knew were the few details that Sai and Tayuya had been willing to tell, before they left.

"I mean that Taicho is the son of the Yondaime Hokage, who my maternal half-brother. Taicho's clan name is taken from his mother, and I, as an agent of Ne, have no ties to any family. In spite of this, given that Tsunade is the Godaime Hokage, it would technically be my right to stand as the head of the Senju clan. Taicho could technically do so as well, but as he is already the head of the Uzumaki clan, that idea would be shot down immediately. No member of the Council of Clans is allowed to have two votes on any matter, to ensure true fairness."

"Hold on." Kiba said, he and Akamaru catching up before stopping in front of the group, turning to face Sai. Following suit, the other twelve ninja all paused their run toward Kiri.

"Kiba-san, unless you have a good reason for making us stop, we're wasting precious time."

"No, I'm just making something clear. I've never met you before in my life, and neither have most of the rest of us. But here you are, claiming to be directly related to both the Yondaime and the Godaime? That's nuts. I mean, Naruto, I could believe pretty easy, since they look a lot alike now that the moron stopped cutting his hair. The Yondaime being Tsunade-sama's child sounds like bullshit, but I couldn't really care less about that."

"Whether or not you chose to believe the truth is unimportant, Kiba-san. Unless you have anything else to say that's of importance to the mission, I would prefer that we continue moving."

"Orochimaru confirmed it himself, when we fought him." Sasuke said. "Sai is telling the truth."

"Oh, fuck, whatever. Fine, let's get moving again."

"Thank you, Kiba-san. I'm glad you saw reason." Sai smiled once again, giving off an air of mild malevolence that Kiba couldn't quite put his finger on.

The group began moving again, but a conversation wasn't long in making itself.

"If we can make it to the beach, we'll be sure to find a dock somewhere. The only hard part is going to be commissioning a boat." Shino said.

"We already thought of that, Shino-san. I sent a message to Kirigakure before the rest of you woke. My specialty is ink-based Ninjutsu, so my bird will make its way to the Mizukage's office and give my message to her on the paper it carries. It should arrive by mid-day tomorrow, a full day before we should make our way to the beach and edge of Hi no Kuni. If all goes well, then either aid will be dispatched to us immediately, or we will be brought to Kirigakure and be assessed for worthiness to receive aid on our mission."

"Um, Sai...don't you feel a little over-prepared for this, and maybe rushing? I mean...we've only been out of the village for less than a day, and..."

"Hinata-san, while I appreciate your concern, I must ask you to understand. My mission with Tayuya-san, which all of you are accompanying me on, is to rescue Taicho. In order to accomplish this, I believe that help is necessary from as many people as we can manage. While Danzo-sama teaches that we should not trust ninja from other villages to remain allied with us, I have watched my Taicho, and seen the effects he has on people. If Tayuya-san believes that there are people who would be willing to come with us out of respect or friendship with Taicho, then I would gladly take them."

"At this point, though, traveling openly in enemy territory is ill-advised. Yu no Kuni, Tetsu no Kuni, and Nami no Kuni are all neutral lands, but most others have a hidden village inside of them, and you've essentially made yourself into a platoon commander, Sai." Neji said.

"Neji is right." Shikamaru admitted. "One team on its own, even in allied territory, is viewed with caution and not engaged unless necessary. Two teams, and you're treading on thin ice. Three or more, and it amounts to a declaration of war if you're seen."

"We _are_ a declaration of war." Sai countered. "A war against Otogakure. A war on Orochimaru. A war to get our friend and comrade back. I will lead as many ninja as it takes, I would lead the armies of the world against a single child, if that is what was necessary to accomplish my mission. This mission was Taicho's, and he left me in command before he was taken captive. Therefore, it is my mission now, and I am abandoning Ne's tenets. I will not leave Taicho behind."

What Sai hadn't mentioned was the second messenger bird that he'd sent, at Tayuya's insistence. It flew in the opposite direction that they were heading, back to Konoha, where Tayuya had intended it to be found by a few people in particular...

* * *

"Oh my-"

"Oi, Oboro obaa-chan, what is it?" Kouga asked.

"It's from Tayuya." The young-looking Uzumaki woman moved quickly.

"Naruto-onii was captured? And...she went to look for him!" Rei read the contents aloud to her younger twin, who gasped. "She wants us to meet up with her in Kirigakure, obaa-chan!"

"I know. Pack your things, children...we're going. If we're lucky, we might even be able to catch them on the road, before they make it to the edge of Hi no Kuni. Are you two ready to test how fast you can run?"

The pair of ten-year-olds nodded, wide smiles on their faces.

"Naruto-onii is so brave..." Rei said. "Do you think, one day, we could be as strong as he is?"

"Nah. We're gonna be his guards, remember? We're not supposed to be as strong as he is...just strong enough to beat everyone else!" Kouga grinned as he proclaimed his intentions.

Rei laughed.

"You're right, nii-chan. We have to be stronger than anybody else...except Naruto-onii."

"I don't care how cute you two are when you're idolizing your big brother." Oboro interrupted them. "Pack your things, now...or else I'll leave you here by yourselves, and I can let Ebisu-sensei train you."

"No!"

Kouga was on the move in an instant, vaulting across the couch, a coffee table, two bookshelves, and a reclining armchair. He rolled down a hallway, passing by the largely ceremonial room dedicated to Naruto and Tayuya; the two hadn't even set foot in the house, yet somehow the messenger bird had been able to find them and use itself up to give them the message. Kouga wasn't thinking about that, though. He was more concerned with the threat leveled against him, as a day with Ebisu-sensei could be made more productive by instead, in Kouga's own words:

"I'd rather shovel a grave of live caterpillars into my mouth, than wait for that man's lessons to start going south. Fools, ya fools!"

Though it wasn't often, the boy had picked up and retained Kirabi's knack for innapropriate situations in which he could begin rapping his sentences. If Konohamaru was to be believed, not that the fellow ninja-in-training was anything but an unequivocal ego boost to Kouga, then the young Uzumaki boy would be, "the next hot young artist signed by Burning Records, the hottest record label in Hi no Kuni!"

Rei didn't put much stock in that idea, though. She absolutely believed that her little brother was better off dropping the rhymes and returning full-tilt to his training to be a shinobi. It reminded her of a childish poem she'd heard while playing in the streets of Sunagakure.

 _Girls go to Suna's edge, to get more knowledge. Boys go to Kumogakure, to get more stupider._

The, "E," at the end of, "Kumogakure," was silent in order to make the phrase rhyme, giving it the pronunciation, "Koo-mo-gah-curr."

She'd thought that was funny at the time, but as she saw the real-life results before her, she was more than a little bit horrified at the truth they seemed to foretell. Still, she didn't want to get stuck behind listening to a tutor drone on about what it took to be a ninja either. She _was_ a ninja! What problem did they have with calling her what she was?

In ten minutes, Rei and Kouga had finished packing, and the three Uzumaki were out of the door. Time was of the essence for them, if they wanted to meet up with the Rookie Twelve before they could make it to Kiri. It was a three-day journey to the coast of Hi no Kuni, but Oboro had given the children behind her a great deal of speed training; she was sure they could make it in two days. For anything involving her grandson, she would do whatever she had to.

On the one hand, she didn't quite know how to feel about the idea of bringing along the two children who were not her children. She knew their abilities intimately well, she had taught and trained them for two years. Still, she would be lying if she said that she believed it was a good idea to take a pair of ten-year-olds, regardless of their skill level, into a live-fire situation on a rescue mission.

Soon, Konoha was no more than a blip on the horizon, finally fading into hiding behind the trees that made up a large portion of Hi no Kuni.

* * *

"You know, Naruto-kun, there are some absolutely wonderful advantages to having such a modern laboratory in most, if not all, of my...you'd probably call this a lair, wouldn't you? Or maybe a den, since I prefer imagery with snakes? Well, either way, I have some good news for you."

The empty space that followed that proclamation was a little irritating to Orochimaru, but he was simultaneously impressed with Naruto's ability to withstand what would probably be considered torture by most organized nations and hidden villages. If nothing else, the blond teen was durable. He reminded the White Snake of Jiraiya, doubtlessly due to his mass of chakra, ridiculous endurance, and their shared unintelligence. Where Naruto _got_ that idiocy from, Orochimaru couldn't say, as his parents were both highly intelligent individuals. Though Namikaze Minato had been his rival for the position of Hokage, Orochimaru had respected Tsunade's bastard son enough to curb his experiments to a lesser degree.

It hadn't been a very productive number of years, but that was alright. The time had passed, and Orochimaru had moved on to bigger and better things.

"You are doubtlessly thinking, 'what could this good news be? If he thinks it's good, it can't possibly end well for me.' But that would be where you're wrong, Naruto-kun! Thanks to your most _gracious_ optic donation," Orochimaru said, gaze flicking to the preserved eyes sitting in a jar on his desk, "I have enough genetic material to start a project that Danzo-san began. Unfortunately, as he does not enjoy my more...scientific method, he actually forces two people together under orders and makes them get their business done. However, I don't need to do that, so you won't have the misfortune of being with anyone besides your beloved, unless you choose otherwise."

Orochimaru paused, some manner of the work requiring too much focus for the nukenin to talk. Soon enough, however, he was back into calmer waters.

"I also don't exactly have the resources available, at the moment, to make this happen the same way that Danzo-san would." Orochimaru admitted. "Or his timetable. That buzzard is close to his nineties, and still manages to find the time to get six people assassinated before he puts his dentures in. However, I found out that during the battle they had while you and I were busy playing, blood managed to be spilled from both a Hyuuga and an Uchiha girl...which is strange, since I thought Itachi-kun murdered them all. However, I won't complain! Their blood is _very_ precious, and I decided it would be a nice idea to find out what sorts of children you'd have if you decided to procreate with different women. The Hyuuga and Uchiha will only be the first two. I still have Tayuya's genetic samples from her time in my service, and Karin as well. I wonder how powerful a full-blooded Uzumaki child would be?"

He laughed, briefly, before returning to his work.

"It's a delicate process, to synthesize a genetic child from resources that are not designed to do so naturally. Fortunately, I have surgical precision, and mistakes are hard to come by in my care. These four will be my greatest achievement, Naruto-kun, and it will all be thanks to you. Do you have a preference as to who should be the eldest, or what gender you would like them to be? I was thinking you might like to have a son with Tayuya, first. Would that be alright? And then your two friends, and lastly Karin. She is still here with me, which means I'll be able to get a new sample of her DNA any time that I wish. Those other three, though, require immediate attention. A son with Tayuya, a daughter by the Hyuuga girl, another son by the Uchiha woman...my, my, Naruto-kun. If it weren't for the fact that you haven't left my sight, I would have to accuse you of being a _very_ naughty boy!"

Naruto heard the sound of some sort of machine humming to life, and as horrified as he was at the rogue Sannin's proclamations, he was more immediately concerned with the rotary saw that he could feel inches above his chest. Orochimaru was a man who liked to test limits; he wanted to see how quickly Naruto was able to regenerate, and if it was possible to make that regeneration lag. Naruto had healed from a punctured lung in three seconds, though the blood still came out of his mouth once he coughed it up.

A mouse had been placed inside of a cut in his gut before the Kyuubi could heal him, and it had taken a full minute for the demon's chakra to roast that mouse alive before it could begin repairing his intestines. Naruto didn't want to think about the fact that the mouse hadn't been digested...that had been two hours ago.

"We're going to have a fun time together, Naruto-kun, aren't we? I promise, I won't parade you around. I'm fully capable of allowing you to stay my...our...little secret. Isn't that wonderful? I can't think of anybody who would be better to test the limits of mortality with, or the boundaries of immortality. Aren't you just ready to see the fruits of our labors already?"

The White Snake stopped what he was doing for a moment, his eyes moving back and forth to the disembodied orbs on his desk, and his captive's sightless sockets.

"Ah, that's right. My apologies, I spoke without thinking. I hope you can forgive me, Naruto-kun!"

That was when the rotary saw came down, buzzing as it ran back and forth across Naruto's sternum like a pizza cutter. Once again, unable to take the pain, Naruto finally broke down and screamed, struggling against his bonds. His movements were weak, however; while he was naturally strong, the weeks without exercise had begun atrophying his muscles, and his chakra was still continuing to be sucked away by whatever the machine was that Orochimaru had him hooked up to.

"I find it saddening that you only respond to violence, Naruto-kun. It's not like I want to hurt you." Orochimaru said. "It's just that you are the only one who can survive these kinds of experiments, which means I have to be creative. The creative process takes time, and I can't leave you to die of boredom without me! That would just be ill-mannered, I think. Very unsuited to a gracious host like myself."


	41. Against All Odds

**Here we fucking go. Also, for those of you who play Overwatch, I found out that my potato of a computer actually _can_ run it, and I misread the system requirements...my bad. Now, I just need to buy the fuckin' game for myself.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. gunslinger20121: I won't lie, that's partially intentional. Orochimaru, in canon, always struck me as that guy who's a bad guy, and he _knows_ he's a bad guy, but he's convinced that it's okay because he's doing things for reasons that only he can understand. As opposed to Itachi, who's a bad guy that's actually a good guy and he intentionally played the bad guy because it was necessary.**

 **Orochimaru is, I think, a scientist at heart. He wants to learn all he can, and do everything that can be done...for no particular reason, other than, "to do it." To that end, testing the boundaries of life like he does, Naruto is the perfect guinea pig; he recovers from injuries almost instantly, his chakra is incredibly powerful as both an Uzumaki and a Jinchuriki, and as long as he has no chakra to speak of, his unwillingness doesn't matter.**

 **2\. SaKreD4LIFE: Since you asked, I'll definitely think about it. Might not be an omake, but I can certainly try.**

 **3\. SSJ3 Kyuubi Gohan: I like exploring characters. Orochimaru wasn't really expanded on very much in canon, despite his status as a major antagonist in Part 1, and the fact that Sasuke spent three years training under him. That gives me something akin to free reign, and I feel like Orochimaru is much more of an exploratory scientist than a ruthless killer.**

 **4\. OneLunchMan: That's the exact idea. I've known a couple blind people who take jokes about "seeing," as some of the most hilarious ones they've ever heard, but to say something like that to a man whose eyes you ripped out? Orochimaru is a sadist.**

 **As of last chapter, since that was the 40th, _Within the Straws I Grasp_ has reached 247 reviews, 401 followers, 263 favorites, and an amazing 77,777 hits. Looking at that last one, I clearly need to go buy a lottery ticket. My luck can't be as bad as Tsunade's, right?**

 **Right.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"Tayuya!" Oboro shouted, finally catching sight of her would-be granddaughter-in-law.

While the three Uzumaki hadn't completely made it to the Rookie Twelve's position, they were in view along the shoreline of Hi no Kuni, and a ship was visible on the distance. It was one that Tayuya thought she recognized, though the number of passengers would be a bit much for the relatively small boat.

"Oboro! Rei, Kouga! You made it!" She said.

It was the happiest that anyone had seen her since Naruto's disappearance. Tayuya was not a fragile woman; though she was young, it required a special sort of mental grit to make it through Orochimaru's training and remain mentally intact. She hadn't just survived, but thrived, in the harsh conditions and high-risk missions. It was due to her inability to allow risks, something that had faded as she found herself enmeshed in Naruto's devil-may-care approach to battles. Tayuya had always been something of a tactical, precise fighter, compared to the fount of aggressive Ninjutsu that her boyfriend overloaded with chakra to allow for unimaginable destruction.

"Yosh! Tayuya-chan, who are these people?" Lee asked once the trio had finally managed to reach the beach.

"Naruto's grandmother, and...let's keep it simple, and just say that Rei and Kouga are his younger siblings. Does that work?" Tayuya asked, finishing her response.

"Works fine for me." Chouji said, and his statement was followed by mass agreement from the rest of the group.

"And now...we wait for Zabuza. The son of a bitch."

"Z-Zabuza?" Sakura asked, the name making her shake a little bit; it had been almost two years, but the former nukenin had left a terrifying impression on her young mind.

"Hm? You scared, Sakura?" Kiba laughed. "C'mon, he can't be that bad. Right?"

"Momochi Zabuza is a former Anbu, one of the Mizukage's personal guards, a member of the Shinobigatana Nananin Shu, and is called the 'Kirigakure no Oni,' because at the age of six, he slaughtered Kirigakure's graduating class of one hundred Genin. He was armed with nothing but a single kunai, at the time."

The Inuzuka heir paled more than a few shades at that information, caught with an awkward look on his face.

"I...ah...uh...wait a second, how the fuck did you _survive_ a fight with someone like that?"

"Naruto almost managed to kill him, and he retreated after that." Sasuke said.

"Of course. Naruto, Naruto, Naruto...why do I even ask? Is there anything our destined lord and savior _can't_ do?"

"Hopefully, he'll find enough money in the budget to put a muzzle on you. Akamaru does enough talking for you both." Ino shot back, petting the aforementioned dog as he barked happily.

"Akamaru, don't agree with her!" Kiba said, outraged.

"Even man's best friend has abandoned you." Sai noted. "Inuzuka Kiba, the loneliest man in Konoha."

"Fool, ya fool!" Kouga piped up, before his older sister swatted him on the head.

Still, the exclamation was greeted with more than one mocking laugh in Kiba's direction. He fumed, silently; was this what it felt like for Naruto, when they were in the academy?

"Sorry about him." Rei offered up an apology. "He took a little too much of a liking to Kirabi."

"Don't worry, Rei-chan. They'll think he's pretty tame, compared to the genuine article." Tayuya comforted the girl.

It was another half-hour until the ship landed, but it was much larger than Tayuya remembered. Where the boat they'd taken from Uzushio to Kiri had been little more than a canoe with a sail, mainly powered by whatever Suiton jutsu the helmsman chose to use. Before her, however, was a full-blown ship.

"Yar har!" An unseen man shouted, before a rappelling rope's triple-hooked end fell into the sand. A muffled, "Zabuza-sama, please-" was clearly ignored before the tall swordsman leapt off from the edge of the beached ship.

It wasn't until after he'd landed face-first in the sand that he realized he'd made a mistake, and thrown the end of the rope that needed to stay on the boat. As the knotted end he'd left aboard came down to strike the back of his head, Haku used a _shunshin_ to move down to the beach.

"I tried to tell you that it would be more intelligent to leave the hooked end on the ship, Zabuza-sama." He said, wearing his _oinin_ mask.

"Don't sass me, boy."

"One trillion apologies, Zabuza-sama. Truly, I tell you, I will repent throughout both night and day to make up for such an egregious error."

"Ugh...whatever. Tayuya, you've brought some rodents with you. Are you sure you don't want me to thin the herd, a little bit?"

Without warning, or any inkling that he'd moved, Zabuza stood behind Sasuke and Sakura, with Sasuke's head in the Kubikiribocho's guillotine notch and Sakura's neck surrounded by the bladed bore near the top of the sword.

"You two...I remember you. The gaki's old teammates, eh?"

"Be nice, you browless freak."

"You first, tree-fucking bitch."

"Ass-faced pus eater."

"Skanky maggot-lover."

"You wish Haku was actually a girl."

"You want the gaki to use his clones to gang-bang you until you black out."

"I thought we were throwing insults, not reading minds. Besides, with as much stamina as he has, he doesn't _need_ clones." Tayuya smirked. "Or, he won't, once we...once we get him back."

Her return to somberness only lasted a few seconds before the younger Uzumaki twin began to rhyme once again.

"Hey now, you two, quit your clownin'! On your actions, Kouga's frownin!"

"Don't tell me that your time in Kiri turned the boy into a rapping zealot."

"That'd make me a liar, needle-dick."

Sai smiled.

"As much as I would enjoy listening to the two of you converse for the rest of the day," he said, "I would prefer that we begin our traveling as quickly as possible. Can your ship accommodate all of us, Zabuza-san?"

"Yeah, easy. Nobody in Kiri is as good at sealing as Jiraiya-sama, or apparently that blond gaki you're all after, but we're collectively effective enough to make a space-enhancing seal network. The ship is a lot bigger on the inside...just go with it, alright? You won't have rooms to yourselves, but most of you won't need to hot-bunk to avoid sleeping on the floor. It'll be an overnight ride to Kiri, and we should dock about this time tomorrow."

Nobody seemed willing to question how, or why, the former rogue had become an avid sailor. It was just one of those things that they were going to have to accept.

* * *

From a distance, Higurashi watched his daughter climb aboard the ship, and watched it sail away. While he was nervous about entrusting any of Konoha's children to the care of another nation, he had faith that Naruto's bond with their leadership would allow them to pass through without worry. It wasn't Kirigakure, after all, whose upper echelon might have issues with the ninja in that group.

Higurashi's gaze turned northeast, toward Kumogakure. The Hyuuga Incident, and their atrocities during the Second Great War, weren't far-gone from his mind.

"Halt!" Came the order from the Anbu who had been tailing him.

He'd known they were after him, and had led them around so that they wouldn't catch the Rookie Twelve and take them back to Konoha. Now that the ship was gone, vanishing into the distance, he had no reason to keep up the wild goose chase.

"You do not know to whom you speak."

His voice was distorted through the black cloth-and-bone mask, and along with his familial armor, he certainly gave the impression of the man who, in his youth, had been named the _Shikigatana,_ the Deadly Blade.

"You delayed our mission needlessly, and purposefully." The apparent captain said, stepping forward.

"Is that meant to threaten me?" Higurashi said. "I serve the leaves that grow strong in the sunlight, not the trunk of the great tree itself. Their mission is more important than yours."

"Those children are AWOL, and they run the risk of being branded as nukenin if this game of hide-and-seek continues. It is vital to the village that they be brought back before other villages can take advantage of their naivete and destroy an entire generation of our ninja."

"They believe that their task is more important than their lives, and they left in full knowledge that they won't be well-received when they return. They want, more than anything, to bring their friend and brother back. They are on a mission to rescue the Rokudaime Hokage."

"Uzumaki Naruto? Don't make me laugh. That boy was always more trouble than he was worth. I almost hope that he's alive, because whatever it is that Orochimaru is doing to him, he's earned it." One of the other members of the Anbu team said.

In the time it took for them to blink, Higurashi had crossed the distance between them, unsheathed his blunt tanto, and carved a line into the mask of the man who'd just spoken that continued across the side of his head and into his hairline. In the same time, he'd flicked the blood from the blade and sheathed it once again.

"You will _not_ speak ill of my son. Do so again, and I will forego the mercy I hold due to our village."

"You have attacked an Anbu officer, which is treason by Konohagakure's laws."

"And you are fools, if you believe that your numbers will save you."

Jie Higurashi was an old man, but he was not so old that he had become frail or weak. The blood of the wastelands ran strong within his veins, and his story couldn't end here if he was truly dedicated to ensuring his daughter's safety.

He kicked down the Anbu he'd struck previously, four kunai seeming to materialize as they plunged into his elbows and knees and pinned him to the ground.

"One down."

The other three all ran forward, swords drawn, and Higurashi wanted to laugh. They were challenging him to a Kenjutsu battle?

Fools.

With two shuriken in one hand, his fingers threaded through the enlarged holes that he'd forged specifically for this sort of situation, he blocked two of the sword swings. Dodging the third, in two motions he cut his opponent's wrists deeply enough to sever the muscles and view the bones beneath.

"Two down. She will need immediate medical attention. I hope, for your sakes, that she was not your medic."

When the two remaining Anbu did not stand down, collect their allies and leave, the Jie sighed.

In the treeline behind them, Higurashi's clone had armed the favorite weapon of his older brother...the Black Betty. The dual cannon had been named such because its second report gave a bit of a clogged sound before it fired, resulting in what had been referred to as, _"bam-a-lam,"_ by the cocksure and carefree man. The cannon was something that had been mostly kept a family secret by the Jie; it had been recreated by _mostly_ following along the descriptions given by a few manuscripts from the time before the gods died. It wasn't wheel-mounted, however, as that was too slow to transport effectively. Rather, it was shoulder-mounted. Firing great balls of metal that were thick enough to survive the pressure of launching, but fragile enough to collapse on impact and expose the highly flammable contents inside, it was a terrifying weapon.

Higurashi jumped away as both cannonballs flew by him, one taking out an Anbu's leg and the other clipping into the captain's side. The contact brought both men down, and he forced himself to watch as the explosion erupted. This was the path he'd put himself on; no matter who he had to battle against, he would triumph, because his daughter was more important than anything else. And if her mission, self-imposed or not, was to rescue Naruto...it was his duty as a father to support her, regardless of the consequences.

With a solemn, predatory grace, he collected the cannon and vanished into the woodlands.

* * *

"As the motion of no confidence was seconded by enough people, it has been put to a vote by all those who hold a place on the Council of Clans, as well as the trio of honored elders, and Jiraiya of the Sannin. As Senju Tsunade is the Godaime Hokage, the Senju clan does not get a vote, to ensure fairness. Neither will the Uzumaki or the Uchiha clans, whose heirs, Naruto and Sasuke, are respectively missing in action and AWOL." Shizune read aloud.

The room was filled with ninja and civilians alike, in the gallery above the council, though few of them were as worried or nervous as they likely should have been.

"The voting has been recorded and finished. Those people in favor of the Hokage's removal from office shall now have their names read: Hyuuga Hiashi, Hatake Kakashi, Utatane Koharu, Sarutobi Asuma, Mitokado Homura, Yuuhi Kurenai, Shimura Danzo,and Jie Higurashi."

Shizune paused for a moment before continuing.

"Those people in favor of the Hokage's continued tenure shall now have their names read: Arashi Jiraiya, Nara Shikaku, Yamanaka Inoichi, Akimichi Chouza, Inuzuka Tsume, Aburame Shibi, Kato Shizune, Senju Tsunade."

A hung jury. The crowd began to murmur, quietly, about what might happen now.

"Well, I guess that means Tsunade-sama stays." Jiraiya grinned.

"Based off of what?" Danzo asked.

"Well, it's basic legal stuff. When the jury can't form a majority, the accused gets to walk away free. That's the whole point of 'innocent until proven guilty,' right?"

"There's no precedent for a hung jury on a motion of no confidence." Shikaku said, a deep frown on his face. "However, if we take out individual votes and leave only the votes from those who represent families...that means we ignore the elders, Kakashi, Kurenai, Jiraiya, Shizune, and Tsunade-sama. That leaves the vote at three to five. Even if we include Danzo, the existence of Ne has never been proven, and that would leave the vote at four to five in Tsunade-sama's favor."

"That isn't what the vote represents, though." Homura countered. "Though we elders are not part of any organized clan, we created the council to help my teammate, Hiruzen, govern Konoha as the Sandaime Hokage. Personally, I wouldn't normally care one way or another whether Tsunade remains Hokage. She certainly has a storied lineage, directly related to the Shodaime and my sensei, and taught by the Sandaime...but she is headstrong, and refuses to listen to the wishes of the council at any time. When you ignore the will of those who you represent, as a leader, your reign shifts from poor to tyrannical. Without consulting anyone, she sent Uzumaki Naruto on an international mission that resulted in his listing as missing in action and taken captive by Orochimaru, her former teammate. Following those events, eight clan heirs and their teammates went AWOL to attempt a rescue mission for Uzumaki Naruto. In the four days since then, the Anbu team sent to retrieve them hasn't returned.

"This leads me to assume that those Anbu were killed by the so-called, 'Rookie Twelve,' and their co-conspirators, Kitamon no Tayuya and Sai. No matter how you look at the situation, the root cause for their disappearance from Konoha, and even this motion of no confidence, all stems from a recklessly-given mission that is wholly indicative of the life of excess which the Hokage has lead for her whole life. She drinks on the job, she gambles with public money, and she has little regard for human life, even when the shinobi in question happens to be related to her."

Jiraiya stood, drawing attention to himself.

"She has more care for the people in this village than you do, you old geezer!" He shouted. "You and those other two wrinkly rags have been through three wars, and at every turn, it feels like you just want another one. Why is that? Do you just want to piss in the faces of the other villages and say, 'ha ha, we're still the best!' Is that it?"

"You aren't helping your Hokage's case look much better by hurling insults at her detractors." Hiashi said, activating his Byakugan as he stood to face the Sannin. "Would you rather try to throw your weight around against someone capable of responding?"

"Is that a challenge?"

"No, it's a warning." The head of the Hyuuga clan spoke with grim certainty. "You spoke of war, just a few seconds ago. Continue speaking the way you have, and you'll get your battle. Only, this time, none of your students will be able to die for you."

With a roar, Jiraiya leapt across the room, an _Odama Rasengan_ in his hands. As the people around him scattered, and the watchers in the balcony began to scramble so that they could get away, Hiashi performed the _Kaiten_ that caused the chakra ball to dissipate. As more of the shinobi in the room began to take up arms, Anbu appeared to guard Tsunade, and she knew that Konoha's days of peace were finally over. Did it truly have to come to this? Was she, really, the cause? She didn't know. But, now, she had a bigger problem on her hands.

The war for Konoha had begun.


	42. Out on the Open Sea

**Two chapters in (technically) less than twelve hours, and certainly well within twenty-four. It's six in the morning and I have never felt so alive. I played Overwatch for five hours and got a play of the game with DVA by killing an entire enemy team with her ultimate.**

 **Did you know that the doc editor on base FFN removes names? That's why, in these ANs, sometimes words go missing. Pisses me off.**

 **I am become death, destroyer of worlds.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. SaKreD4LIFE: You're right, but there's also something to be said about the idea of a majority rule. even though the council vote ended in a hung jury, the majority of actual full-fledged clan heads voted to keep Tsunade in power. For example, Shikaku easily represents more ninja than, say, Kakashi does, despite the fact that they're both technically clan heads. If the majority of Konoha's populace actually wants her to remain in power, then stepping down due to the vote of a council composed mostly of dissenters against her rule would make very little sense.**

 **So, it's come to a civil war.**

 **2\. OneLunchMan: Not only have the lines been drawn, but Shizune decided to forego sand and carve those lines straight into sheet-metal by reading aloud who sided with whom. No playing hide-and-seek with their loyalties!**

 **3\. Tsukoblue: I don't know that, "awesome," is the word I'd use to describe a civil war, besides the Marvel movie that came out earlier this year...but you know what? Yeah, it's gonna kick some ass. Or, at least, a lot of ass is going to get kicked throughout its duration.**

 **4\. Lord Bedhead: I'm glad you liked Zabuza last chapter, because you're getting some more of him in this one. And...yeah, civil war. The discourse is over, everyone! It's time to settle things with our fists, like adults!** **The war isn't really for anyone to take the position of Hokage, though; it's more about the question of whether Tsunade is or isn't competent enough to remain in office.**

 **5\. dragzxx: Orochimaru _does,_ in fact, have more than enough of Naruto's DNA present to avoid needing to use his eyes. Like, an embarrasingly high amount. However, Orochimaru is a sadist who likes to do things for shits and giggles. I'm sure he knows that there's an easier way to do things, but why would he do it that way when he can stave off boredom for a little while longer by making it harder on himself? I speak from experience when I say that boredom, in an intelligent mind, is an incredibly painful thing to deal with. As a matter of fact, that's part of the reason why I started writing this fic: I was bored as all goddamn hell.**

 **6\. Guest: You want more Zabuza and Haku, you say? Have some more Zabuza and Haku, _just_ for you, my friend!**

 **This chapter is pretty much filler. I didn't set out with the intention of writing a filler chapter, but it just kind of happened. I saved the document, looked up, and suddenly I had 3,030 words of what amounted to one scene written into a chapter. Maybe that's the reason why I was so possessed to write it all out, because I didn't even realize how long I'd written it for?**

 **Oh well. I'm not complaining.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"Everyone get below deck, there's a storm coming." Zabuza said. "There's no guarantee that we won't get blown off course. Also, I don't have a compass on me, so I hope that all of you are ready for an adventure."

"Why, and how, could you forget the compass I packed specifically for you so that your horrible sense of direction wouldn't get us lost? Zabuza-sama, you're a terrible sailor." Haku bemoaned his fate as the man's apprentice, his voice carrying from the crow's nest.

"Well, I'm sorry, but I don't normally need to know cardinal directions in order to kill people!"

"Zabuza-sama, all I'm saying is that left, right, forward, backward, up and down, aren't always good enough for other ninja. Sometimes, it helps to actually know what to say besides pointing a finger and shouting, 'that way!'"

"If it's good enough for me, it's good enough for them, too!"

Even through the mask, the Demon of the Mist could feel his student's disbelieving stare.

"What direction does the sun rise in, Zabuza-sama?"

"North. North is up, and south is down, so the sun rises in the north and sets in the south."

"Geez, who was your academy teacher, Naruto?" Ino said, laughing. "Oh, god, remember when he thought that the sun and the moon were the same size?"

"They're not?" Zabuza asked.

The question was greeted by continued laughter, or looks of abject horror, from the younger ninja on the boat. Haku even took off his mask to make sure Zabuza understood just how moronic that question was.

"Fuck you, I don't need to know astronomy to be an assassin! Now, all of you brats get below deck, or it's your own stupidity that gets you sent off this ship and down to the bottom of the ocean!"

Zabuza was an incredibly smart man. It just so happened, however, that his intelligence was not universal. He could tell you six different ways to kill a man, and be able to walk away, before the target even realized that they were dead. He could explain the mathematics behind a shuriken's trajectory, and how to anticipate the direction it would go based purely off of how the light caught its edges.

He didn't know anything that didn't apply to ninja life, however. He couldn't impersonate others for very long when others knew the person in question. He didn't know much of anything about botany, astronomy, or any area of scientific study that wasn't physics. He wasn't a student of history, and Haku had to file his mission reports due to the fact that his handwriting was barely legible.

He didn't have to know how to understand the weather in order to swing a sword. He didn't need to know that mixing household cleaners could create a toxic gas, in order to create Ninjutsu. Knowledge like that was entirely unsuited to a ninja who was ranked as Kirigakure's top assassin. That was one reason why he respected Naruto; the blond teen didn't know much about a normal, dare he say civilian, life...but on the battlefield, Naruto was a juggernaut of terror that Zabuza had never seen the like of.

The Rookie Twelve, the three Uzumaki, Sai, Tayuya and Haku, migrated to the inside of the ship as Zabuza sailed head-on into the dark waters that loomed overhead. Laughing as he stood at the helm, steering into the waters that sat beneath looming thunderclouds, the _Kirigakure no Oni_ felt alive. This was a battle of man against nature, and his true love, death, was calling his name.

"Shiver me timbers." He muttered, glad that Haku wasn't around to berate him for using such laughable speech. "Seems to be, mateys, that we've run afoul of the drowning god."

* * *

"So why didn't that crazy bastard come down here with us, and lower the anchor?" Shikamaru asked.

"Zabuza-sama can sail a boat perfectly fine, which is why he's one of the only people in Kirigakure who will make trips from the village to any other shore. The problem is, he has both a masochistic code of honor and an awful sense of direction. So he sends anyone who could tell him where he needs to go below deck, during a storm, to keep them safe...and he stays above deck himself to make sure that the boat stays on course." Haku explained.

"That's...that's so _stupid._ " Sakura said, her face scrunching up in confusion.

"That's why I got him a compass, and I packed it in his bag for him, but he must have found it and left it in Kirigakure because it would wound his pride not to make it here and back on his own power."

"Haku, you deserve a better master." Sasuke stated bluntly. "Zabuza's just asking to die, doing something like that."

"That's the entire point of it, I think." The feminine boy said. "He doesn't feel alive unless he puts his life on the line. He enjoys the thrill of danger, and nothing is more dangerous than unnecessarily risking death."

"I can sympathize." Oboro said. "My husband, before he was killed, lived the same sort of lifestyle. His position as the Uzukage and the head of our clan meant nothing to him, only that he had to fight in order to protect the future of the family we hoped to have."

"Hey...Tayuya said you were Naruto's grandmother, right? That's crazy. You don't look a day over twenty-five, there's no way!" Ino exclaimed.

"I'm actually in my sixties." Oboro smirked. "Not that Tayuya wants to think about how her husband-to-be staying as young as he is."

"Hey!" Tayuya took a playful swipe at the Uzumaki matron, though she missed. "None of that. We can talk about that once he's back."

"Tayuya..." Sakura, Ino, and Tenten all chimed in, looming behind the redhead with predatory smiles on their faces. "...what's this about a marriage with Naruto?"

"It would be the logical choice." Sai interrupted. "After all, during the brief period before they left Konoha, she stayed in his home. They then spent the better part of a year training and living together on the road, followed by several more months on the mission to destroy Orochimaru's network of hidden bases. Out of anyone, she's the closest to him by far, and he to her. It's through her impetus, after all, that I decided to finish this mission and rescue Taicho in the process."

"Why do you call him that?" Chouji asked. "You only knew him for what, the length of one mission?"

"That is correct, Chouji-san." Sai confirmed. "However, I have always worked by myself on missions for Ne, and never in a team. So, being put under the command of a senior officer was a first for me. 'Senpai,' leaves a strange taste in my mouth, given that I am his uncle, but regardless of that fact, Uzumaki Naruto is my Taicho."

"Naruto-kun sure has picked up some strange friends." Haku said with a beaming smile. "Did he ever tell you about the time he mistook me for a girl?"

"You're a _boy?_ " Came the shrieking cries of revelation from most of the ninja present.

"Heavens forbid that I ever get a different reaction than that." Haku groaned, his deadpan expression matching Sai's.

"Just as Kiba is the loneliest man in the world...so, too, Haku, are you the prettiest. Truly a shame, since you outshine almost all the women present."

"You know, I want to be insulted by that." Ino said dejectedly. "But he's right."

"Yeah." Sakura said, commiserating with her lifelong friend. "That round face, those big eyes and full lips...his skin is so soft and light...ugh, I'm jealous."

"You know, he doesn't even have scars on him. He almost looks _too_ pretty." Tenten said. "Like he'll vanish if you look too long."

 _A thousand apologies, Zabuza-sama. I should have listened when you told me that women are trouble._ Haku thought to himself.

"He's a man, not a piece of meat." Shikamaru chided the girls. "Not that Kiba was looking at him much differently before that revelation."

"I...hey, why are you bringing me into this? It's their problem, not mine!"

"Says the one whose only worse failure than his career as a ninja, is the frequency of his rejections when he asks women on dates."

"Shut up, Shino! God, you piss me off!"

"I'm afraid that I take offense to that, Kiba. Be careful, or I might have my _kikaichu_ eat through the wood you stand on."

"Ah...ha...you're joking, right? Shino, buddy?" Kiba looked around himself nervously, trying to feel if there were any weaknesses in the planks beneath his feet.

"Do I look like I'm joking?"

It was hard to tell, honestly. The teen's large coat, thick sunglasses, and mop of hair all worked wonders to hide his body and his facial expressions.

"Uh...yeah?"

"Wrong answer."

"Shino-kun, I must ask that you refrain from damaging the ship in any way. Drag him above-deck and throw him overboard if you must, but Kirigakure does not have a large fleet after the results of our civil war. Besides, it would be counter-productive for us to meet our end on the open sea."

Shino tried to open the hatch that led to the ship's deck.

"It's locked...how unfortunate. It seems that some of Naruto's luck may have rubbed off on you, Kiba."

The Inuzuka shuddered. If there was anything he didn't want from the missing blond, given the disaster that had befallen him, it was _that._

"I wonder how Zabuza's doing?" Sasuke asked.

* * *

"Yo-ho, yo-ho, a pirate's life for me!" The assassin sang, spinning the ship's wheel hard to starboard. "We drink, we burn, we rape, then we turn to go back to our home out at sea! Yo-ho, yo-ho, a pirate's life for me!"

The rain seemed to fall in sheets around him, and he was soaked to the bone, but a wet body was of little consequence to ninja raised in Kirigakure. The thunder cracked overhead, lightning splitting the skies beside him, but he continued to press on.

"My Bonnie lies over the ocean...my Bonnie lies over the sea! My Bonnie lies over the ocean...oh, bring back my Bonnie to me! Bring back, oh bring back, oh bring back my Bonnie to me, to me! Bring back, oh bring back, oh bring back my Bonnie to me! My Bonnie's the fairest lass of all...she loves me like I love the sea! It's Bonnie I'm after, after all...I'll ask Bonnie to marry me! Marry, please marry, oh Bonnie won't you marry me, me, me? Marry, please marry, oh Bonnie won't you marry me?"

He raised one hand to the sky, his middle finger prominently displayed in a universal, _fuck you,_ to the lightning that had yet to touch him. Clearly, the answer was that he wasn't singing loud enough.

"WE ARE THE _PIIIIIIIIIRAAAAATES_...WHO DON'T DO _ANYTHING_...WE JUST STAY HOME, AND LIE AROUND. AND IF YOU ASK HAKU TO DO _ANYTHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING_..."

It was simply not to be, however. No matter how loud or gaudy his songs or voice became, the lightning would not strike its blasphemer down.

* * *

"If I could hazard a guess, I would say that he's having the time of his life." Neji said, his Byakugan active as he read the swordsman's lips. "He's complaining about you, Haku."

"He does that." The false _oinin_ said. "Generally because I've been too damaging to his ego. I'll never understand his insistence on the importance of pride."

"It's a male thing. There's some things he's probably just convinced that it's beneath him to do." Kiba offered up an explanation.

"I don't understand that, either. The reason Naruto-kun thought I was a girl, when we met, is because I was collecting herbs to heal Zabuza-sama's wounds after his battle against Naruto-kun."

"You were...picking flowers?" Kiba asked.

"No, I was collecting herbs."

"That's the same damn thing."

"No it's not!" Ino insisted, jumping into the conversation. "Haku, does that mean you're a medic?"

"Not beyond my skills as an apothecary." He admitted. "As Zabuza-sama before me, I am an assassin by trade, as part of our disguise while nukenin was that I was to play the part of an Anbu officer hunting him down. I have an intimate knowledge of both masculine and feminine anatomy, and I use elongated senbon in combat which allow for me to make pinpoint-accurate strikes. Sasuke-kun can attest to my skill with them."

The Uchiha rolled down his shirt's collar, revealing eight circular scar-marks around the base of his throat.

"Not a moment I enjoy re-living." Sasuke admitted. "But I was unconscious after that, so I didn't get to see Naruto curb-stomp you. Or any of Gato's mercenaries."

"You're stronger than Sasuke-kun?" Ino asked.

"Probably not anymore." Haku said. "He was a fresh Genin on the first mission outside of his home village, and I had been trained to a Kirigakure Anbu's levels of stealth, Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, and the use of my Kekkei Genkai. I am highly specialized in the field of assassination, while Sasuke-kun is a well-rounded ninja who specializes in Ninjutsu and Genjutsu."

"No, you'd probably still win." Sasuke said. "Your ice can't be melted or broken. At least, not by me."

"Well, we'll never be enemies again, so we won't find out." Haku said, closing the issue. "Now, it's getting late. I think, for my own sake, that I'll go to sleep."

He wandered off, exiting the entry-room to the ship's underbelly and moving down the hall to one of the sleeping quarters.

"That's not a bad idea, actually. Sleep sounds good. Hopefully we'll wake up and be on calmer seas." Kiba wandered off.

He was soon followed by the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, Team Gai, the Uzumaki family, Sasuke, Sakura, and Shino. As Hinata stood from her spot in the corner, where she'd gone unnoticed for most of their time spent below deck, a rough wave lashed the side of the ship and caused her to stumble. Sai was there in an instant, catching her as she fell and twisting so that the back of her head was cradled by his arms; her face was covered, comfortably, by the Ne operative's chest. Strangely, in that moment, she felt like she'd been shown more kindness by the supposedly emotionless teen Anbu than by anyone else she'd known.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"Ah, um...yes, Sai, I'm fine. Thanks to you!"

He lifted his torso off of her, and Hinata felt like she understood why Naruto and Tayuya always slept together. It was just so _warm_ to be next to someone else.

"I'm glad." Sai smiled, though this wasn't the off-putting grin that made others question his sanity. The look on his face reminded her of Naruto. "Would you like to know something?"

"I...I guess. What is it?"

"When I said that Haku was unfortunately prettier than most of the other girls here, I was talking about the other three." He seemed to say the words blankly, without consideration of their effect on Hinata. "You, however, outshine them all."

"Sai...you don't have to lie to make me feel better. Nobody likes me, or thinks I'm beautiful. Nobody wants to be with the laughingstock of the Hyuuga family, who loves a boy she'll never have the courage to get."

"I'll speak plainly, Hinata-san, as I am a member of Ne and not effective at committing subterfuge against my allies. After my time together with you on our mission, and in these past few days, I have noticed two things about you. Your affection for Taicho, and mine for you. I cannot woo you with words, pretend that I will give up my slated life in order to be with you, or even expect an answer to this confession, but I believed that you should have a right to know the truth. The expression of feelings isn't something I am skilled in, yet I believed that I must tell you...that was all."

He lifted her up effortlessly, and then walked away to find a cot of his own.

* * *

"Aw...well, fuck. I'm lost as hell." Zabuza groaned in the darkness, the storm not having abated. "Haku's gonna get mad at me again."

It was a very quick decision to come to, however, that Zabuza didn't actually _care_ whether or not his apprentice was upset. Zabuza was the one in charge, after all, wasn't he? Of course he was! That was the only way the world made sense. He was just _the best._ That was the reason why he'd gone untouched by lightning, of course! The storm had been afraid that, by touching him, it would upset the very balance of the universe!

That sort of discovery was deserving of a song. Something that would annoy Haku even more than the sea shanties he'd sung already, and preferably with a very long guitar solo that he could imitate. Something that needed to be sung as obnoxiously as possible.

Thinking it over, he _knew._

"ON A COLD WINTER MORNING, IN THE TIME BEFORE THE LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT..."

He was going to ensure that boy regretted ever trying to make him use a compass.


	43. Set the Stage (Tobi Wants War)

**Two chapters in less than 24 hours. Three chapters in less than 36 hours. I am kicking some serious ass.**

 **Don't remind me that I need to wake up at 5 AM to get to my morning shift at 6 AM.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. gunslinger20121: As much as I enjoyed that semi-crack chapter, it's time to return to the land of plot and drama.**

 **2\. OneLunchMan: We _are_ pirates now. Because, why not? And Kiba...if Naruto hadn't been there, Kiba would have easily been the class clown. I try to represent that in how I write him.**

 **3\. Drake Vallion: Glad I could make you laugh. I figured, too much seriousness isn't necessarily a good thing...but I'm no good at writing comedy 100% of the time. So I try to keep a bit of a balance. Zabuza is equal parts ruthless killer and maritime disaster.**

 **4\. Lord Bedhead: The world _does_ need more of my Zabuza, with Haku as the unerring straight man to his unintentionally comedic routine. And, yeah, operation Sai/Hinata is a go. NejiHina hints were just a temporary plot device to get the Caged Bird/Aiganchou seal off of Neji.**

 **I'll be honest, the second-to-last section in this chapter feels off/weak to me, but it's the best I can do, because it emphasizes another point made earlier in the chapter and sets the stage for everybody's favorite Good Boy...Tobi, god's chosen and most favorite son; blessed is he.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"Ugh...troublesome." Shikamaru rolled off of his cot, onto the floor of the ship, but didn't wake up.

Or, at least, he didn't _get_ up, perfectly content to remain laying down and potentially go back to sleep. When no shrill cry of, "Shikamaru, get your lazy ass up," greeted him, he almost managed it, but years of training with Ino had conditioned him to believe that something was very wrong with the world if she wasn't berating him for something.

It had been three days since the night of the storm that blew them off-course, despite Zabuza's best efforts, but the Kiri-nin had thankfully come prepared. There was a third level to the ship's underbelly, used to store food, and the top level of the ship had a decently-sized galley for whoever felt like cooking. Zabuza also had more than a few fishing rods, and it had taken him, Kiba, Chouji and Sakura combined to reel in a bladefish.

The bladefish was a larger, more dangerous cousin to swordfish, the length and height of its sword-like front enough that it prevented its vision from overlapping. Shikamaru was both interested and perturbed by its biology, but he was more concerned with the fact that nobody except Akamaru had put much of a dent into its two thousand pounds of flesh.

That meant it would be the third day in a row of eating bladefish steaks. Shikamaru had never thought the words might come to his mind, but he found himself wanting a salad.

As he walked up to the deck, Hinata and Ino were talking with Sai off to the side. Haku had taken up his customary vigil in the crow's nest, where he was joined by Sasuke; the Uchiha's had sharper eyes than anyone except Neji or Hinata, and he wanted to see _land_. The smell of salt came from the galley's grill, an indication that someone was attempting to make the same food they'd had for the last six meals taste somewhat more appetizing.

"Well...at least there's clouds." Shikamaru said to himself, steadying his body to the boat's railing with chakra as he watched the clouds fly freely overhead. "Shit, I wish I could be one of them. No cares, no responsibilities, no mother nagging me to hurry up and find a girl to marry..."

It wasn't that Shikamaru didn't enjoy the prospect of his supposed future. He just couldn't be bothered to give a damn. Or, as his father politely put it, he was, "very _laissez-faire_ about how his life will play out." As far as Shikamaru was concerned, things would happen however they happened to. There was no use in trying to engineer a life against fate, right?

Right.

"You know, Shika, you're practically asking for-"

"Try it, and you're going down with me, Kiba."

The Inuzuka backed away slowly, leaving his former classmate to cloud-watch in peace.

* * *

It had been a week since the clan heirs' disappearance from Konoha, their emptiness marked by blood in the streets. In truth, the war wasn't quite as clean-cut as the dividing lines had made them out to be in the council chambers.

Danzo commanded Ne. Kakashi and Hiashi were the informal leaders of the clans and Jounin, as well as some Anbu, who had disagreed with Tsunade's rule. Jiraiya commanded the bulk of Konoha's forces with his one-time teammate, as well as the Anbu who hadn't defected to Kakashi's side.

Things were grim, at best, for the man who held the last Sharingan in Konoha. His faction was the smallest, though arguably the best-trained, and nobody seemed quite willing enough to engage in true warfare. Even Danzo hesitated, only taking prisoners rather than outright killing.

It was because very few people were genuinely at fault for the disaster, and therefore only those select few peoples' heads were wanted on silver platters.

But, as he stood his ground against a man who'd been legendary since before he was born, Kakashi couldn't help the sigh of regret.

"You have no one to blame but yourself, Kakashi." Jiraiya glared, preparing to bring his full might to the battle.

"Says the man who threw the first punch." He retorted, thumb lifting to uncover his pseudo-brother's last will and testament. "Well...let's get this over with, Jiraiya. No hard feelings."

"Of course not. For Konoha."

"For _Naruto._ "

Jiraiya was not a very fast man. He could keep up with high-speed battles, but his virtues were strength and endurance. Kakashi, however, sacrificed his durability for speed.

"You couldn't have been an effective teacher for him." Kakashi's knee connected with Jiraiya's side. "Despite your similarities, you would only have held back in training him, because you didn't see Minato...you saw yourself."

"Don't you dare mention his name." Jiraiya growled, his fist missing as Kakashi landed another kick.

Kakashi's blows didn't seem to faze the white-haired Sannin much, but the Sharingan-touting cyclops was too fast to hit or avoid.

"Because you're ashamed that he died when you couldn't offer yourself up as a sacrifice?"

There it was, the first kunai dragged along Jiraiya's arm. It left a long cut, of middling depth, but the pain burned.

"Or because you know he'd be disappointed in you?"

It was a common misconception that Kakashi had always associated himself with dogs. Rather, the fact of the matter was that his summoning contract was for the entire canine family tree. Foxes were Naruto's gambit, however, and he had avoided his father's wolves out of respect for the dead. That having been said, Kakashi had to accept something during the moments before Jiraiya finally managed to land an enraged punch:

He was _Horkew Kamuy,_ in the old language. The Howling God; a great, silver dire-wolf, yellowed fangs glistening as saliva fell through the spaces between them. Wolves were pack animals, their entire system of life was based around group-parenting their young and hunting together to feed all of their pack. The _Horkew Kamuy_ had no pack, for they had all died or gone away. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura had all vanished. Minato, Kushina, Rin and Obito, were dead. To survive alone, a wolf had to be the very pinnacle of its species...the fastest, smartest, strongest, deadliest hunter in the wilderness. One who would fall into no traps, and waste no movement.

He was the son of _Byakiba,_ the White Fang, a wolf whose compassionate heart had led to its exile from the pack. Hatake Sakumo had not been strong enough to survive without the support of his friends and loved ones. The sin of the father, irredeemable by any but those who came after him.

His son, however, needed nothing but the prey before his eyes. He sought the companionship of nothing and no one, often driving others away with his zeal for high-risk solo missions that served no purpose but to test his mettle. That side of his personality had been set on the back burner during his time as the teacher of Team Seven, but he would play the fiddle as the walls of Konoha burned.

This was the village that had abandoned his father. The village that had abandoned his brother and lover. The village that had allowed his sensei's son to rot, and even now turned a blind eye toward Naruto's suffering in favor of this sham of a war's theater. Standing against Kakashi now was one of the two people that he could directly blame for the boy's disappearance, or his sensei's death.

The _Horkew Kamuy_ was not perturbed as it stood again, blood on its pale coat that was leaking from its muzzle. In its right fore-paw, the Howling God summoned death. Though it missed, and missed again, it felt neither sorrow nor disappointment; it was the hunter, and it had found something to hunt.

All the world was prey.

* * *

From above, hidden and intangible in his _Kamui,_ Tobi watched the battle rage. While he was delighted that Konoha had thrown itself into the chaos he'd always sought to inspire in it, he was upset by the...how would he put it? The lack of death.

Still, his direct appearance in the midst of the fray could cause some glaring problems. It didn't help him that the _henge_ was the one basic jutsu that was virtually impossible for him to do. Illusions, in general, were a horrific problem for Tobi.

How ironic, then, that Itachi was so gifted in their use.

Quietly moping to himself, he decided that it was enough to watch the battle between Jiraiya and Kakashi.

After all, it wasn't like he would be entertained by watching the rest of the rabble fight. That was a sad truth about Tobi; no matter how good he was, he just couldn't have any fun. All work, and no play, had made him a dull boy.

As much as it bothered him that the whole debacle was due to the Kyuubi Jinchuriki's disappearance, and as bothered as he was by the fact that the Kyuubi Jinchuriki had disappeared, it wouldn't stop him from enjoying the destruction.

Madara, as always, had been right once again. Plant even the smallest seeds of dissent in the ground, and eventually they would grow to crack the foundation that upheld all of the Senju clan's ways. The Will of Fire that Konoha's people so ardently believed in had left him burned, buried beneath a monumental cave-in, with one eye missing and his body scarred beyond recognition.

All he wished for was their death. The death of the village, the death of all its people, the death of their enemies. Collecting the Biju, and slaying the Jinchuriki that housed them, was the fastest path to that goal: a world where Tobi did not walk masked, to hide his face and the painful scars upon it, but instead as Uchiha Obito. A world where he existed alone, a world which he ruled.

It was a shallow goal. A callous goal. Tobi understood that much, and accepted it. But why should a race as pained, and flawed, as humans, _not_ be exterminated? All they did was bring themselves war, and death, and suffering. Peace was a dream, a prize that would never be found. That was the simple truth of the matter; humanity was not a species built to survive its own ambition.

The cycle of destruction would never end until mankind did. Only then would the world begin to heal.

* * *

"This is all your fault anyway." Kakashi's wrathful voice declared. "You're the one whose training led to Naruto's capture. You're the one who attacked Hiashi during the Council of Clans. You're the one who didn't act when you should have, and made sure that Naruto grew up without either one of his parents!"

"Naruto, Naruto, Naruto...cut the act, Kakashi. We both know you're doing this for your own selfish reasons. You think I enjoy the fact that my godson is in the hands of my sadistic ex-teammate? Hell no. But you know what? Some people out there are trying to do something about it. I don't like their method, but those kids had the right idea. If it weren't for you and Danzo, we could organize a real rescue mission."

"Don't blame me for your shortcomings. I don't like Danzo, but sometimes the path of darkness is better than the road of chaos. We want Konoha to go back to the way it was, we want someone who knows what they're doing to be the Hokage!"

"So that's it, then. The end justifies the means, no matter how cruel or violent those means might be?"

"Save your commentary for the birds." Kakashi glared, re-igniting his _Raikiri._ "I'm done playing around with someone who lets all of his students die, or get left behind. It's time for me to teach you a lesson."

"As if that bastardized technique can compare to the failure of what you tried to do before it. The Yondaime was a full order of magnitude above your capability, and the Rasengan is gonna eat you for breakfast."

"Who says I failed?"

The two techniques were brought to bear, the _Raikiri_ and _Rasengan_ slashing into one another. What Jiraiya hadn't expected was for there to be a dense layer of chakra underneath the _Raikiri,_ allowing Kakashi to cut through the middle of Jiraiya's arm. As the Raiton technique began to fade away, Kakashi called forth his own _Rasengan,_ leftover electricity making the orb spark and elongate as it swirled. Slowly, it transformed into a lance reminiscent of the technique Sasuke had used during the first round of the Chunin Exams in Suna.

"My sensei's technique, the Hiraishin no Jutsu,wasn't a Raiton Ninjutsu. This, however...this is the culmination of his life's work, and mine. The 'Rasen Raijin.' A fitting tribute, don't you think?"

The lightning-charged spear of chakra was tightly condensed, but the _Rasengan_ raged inside of it. It was a testament to Kakashi's power, his ingenuity, and the strength of his will. As he hurled it, something that was impossible with a normal _Rasengan,_ a second person dropped down into the battlefield and deflected it with an earth-raising punch. Rather than Jiraiya, the electric technique exploded against a decently-sized section of the street.

"You picked a nice time to start showing that you care about me."

"Shut up, Jiraiya." Tsunade growled. "Anbu, attack."

The masked warriors came out of the shadows surrounding Kakashi, and he had almost started to worry until he saw the purple hair of Neko. When Yugao's blade went through Tsunade's stomach, it came as a complete surprise to the Hokage. Gracefully, she allowed the two Sannin to retreat, but she stood under the afternoon sun with Kakashi for a long time after they'd gone; Jiraiya's wounds would take time to heal, and it was unlikely that he would be so brazen as to challenge Kakashi on his own again.

Perhaps the _Horkew Kamuy_ was not a lonely wolf after all.

From high above, as Tobi watched the battle's ending with a sad sense of disinterest, he decided that maybe it was time for some direct intervention...later, when the next battle resumed. Or, maybe, to free some captives and kill their captors? A non-lethal war was too much like a group of children playing at being ninja, rather than ninja doing what they had been trained to do.

* * *

"You know, Naruto-kun, I'm glad that you finally managed to stop being so avoidant to conversation with me. It only took you...three weeks? That's quite a long time to suffer in silence, especially when there's someone available to listen."

"Fuck you." The blond growled. "Let me out of this thing so I can kill you."

"It seems the academy slacked off on the teaching of persuasive speech. That argument isn't very conductive to getting your binds undone. Besides, Naruto-kun, you're blind. Remember?"

"Not blind enough to stop me from picturing you dead at my feet." Naruto threatened.

"I don't know why you're so hostile. Am I not taking good care of you? I apologize, but we're all out of pillows and blankets. I'm afraid your sleep schedule is on more of a, 'when you can,' and not, 'when it feels comfortable to.'"

"Go shove a sword up your ass."

"Now, now, Naruto-kun...I keep my sword in my throat. That's one end of my digestive tract, already compromised. It wouldn't make much sense to jeopardize the other side! Besides, aren't you interested in learning how your children are coming along?"

"Those aren't children." The blind Uzumaki decried his captor's words. "They're abominations."

"Please, Naruto-kun, be nice to your children. They deserve a loving father, after all, isn't that right? Someone who will cherish them."

"Ironic words, coming from a man who abandoned his only son."

"Abandoned? No. Sai was nothing more than a tool for Ne, from start to finish, particularly after Tsunade ran away from the village following her first son's death. I hold no attachment to him beyond an acknowledgement that I was his sire. These three, however...they're coming along quite nicely. I'm able to rapidly increase their growth, thanks to some technological advancements the gods left behind before they died. Your son by Tayuya is a newborn, though your children by the Hyuuga and Uchiha women would still be in the womb at this stage. Almost ready to take their first breaths, though! Isn't that exciting, Naruto-kun?"

"You are one twisted son of a bitch." Naruto spat.

"So I'm told. I take it as a compliment, though. Not many scientists or researchers have gotten very far in exploring humanity's potential by staying within the guidelines that the society around them has set forth. Just so, my twisted nature reflects that I will not stick to any singular path of discovery. I intend to know everything, about everything to do with mankind and our limits. Whether I then break those limits, or find that the ceiling is unmovable, isn't something I'll understand until I get to that point."

Naruto didn't know how much more of this trapped, tortured existence he could take. Still, he had to endure. It was a matter of survival or death, though the situation was rather more involved with his mental capabilities than his actual life. The minute noises, Orochimaru's disturbing wonder about the limits of mankind, his own blindness...everything was contributing itself to a mixture of circumstances that was slowly driving Naruto insane.

Naruto had never been a pious child, particularly given that all the gods were dead, but he prayed for salvation. Whether by death, or freedom, was inconsequential.


	44. Zabuza Done Goofed

**Word count is a little short, but I figured y'all deserved a chapter. Here it is...I don't know that you could call this, "plot," but it is what it is, I guess.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. OneLunchMan: You're absolutely right. Kakashi's advancement of the basic _Chidori/Raikiri_ is just to add another layer of chakra on top of his hand to act as a buffer against other techniques, as used against Jiraiya's _Rasengan_ last chapter. The _Rasen Raijin,_ on the other hand, is for a few reasons; Kakashi is pretty universally referred to as a hugely talented ninja, and/or genius. Why would he be unable to, "complete," the _Rasengan,_ when Naruto, someone whose only canon gimmick is shadow clones...why does Naruto get it? Plot. Why can't anyone else? It would devalue the plot.**

 **As for the misreading: I can't tell you why you saw that sentence, but that'd honestly work pretty well for that line too.**

 **2\. gunslinger20121: I do my best to make people laugh, when I can.**

 **3\. Guest: I've debated on whether or not to reply with some snarky, "you got it," kind of comment, but at the moment I'm not feeling like a _total_ asshole, so you're gonna get away free on that one.**

 **4\. zafnak: I know, right? It wasn't really about the teaching, though, which I tried to show; Kakashi has a pretty deep-seated grudge against Jiraiya for the fact that Jiraiya (who knows how to perform the _Shiki Fuin,_ ) didn't act in time to save Minato and Kushina's lives. There's also something to be said about the similarity between Naruto and Jiraiya's characters, given their parallels...and if Naruto becomes Jiraiya, and Jiraiya always lost to Orochimaru, then it makes sense that Naruto would lose to Orochimaru as well.**

 **5\. Drake Vallion: there's an old saying, in writing. "If there's anything that could magically make the situation worse for your main characters, write it. If there's a magic solution, don't write it." I may or may not take that idea up, but you've given me an idea for, "what would make the situation worse?"**

 **...**

 **Also, to the guest who reported this story for, "rape and torture," I hope you know how hard I laughed when I got that email & your review. (Which I promptly deleted, since you're an anonymous guest, lol.) At no point was anyone raped in this story, and torture...I did give this story an M-rating, right? That implies that certain things may happen that aren't exactly happy for the reader to envision, so it's up to you to decide whether or not to pursue reading the fic. Put on your big boy britches and deal with it, kid. Tobi, the Good Boy, is watching.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"Kakashi-senpai...what were you doing?" The annoyed tone of Yugao's voice was something of a surprise to Kakashi.

"More like, what were _you_ doing? Tenzo defected to my side immediately, and I was worried about you. I'm glad you're safe...and that you got away safely."

"Touching as that is, senpai, do I need to remind you that you tried to kill Jiraiya of the Sannin, earlier? Someone that practically the entire village looks up to?"

"For his literary career, maybe, but not his exploits as a ninja." Kakashi countered. "And...I know. I knew _exactly_ what I was doing. Jiraiya is someone who constantly pulls punches in his fights, until he knows that he's not the one with the upper hand. The next time we fight, he'll be more serious."

"And you want that? Another fight, let alone a serious one?"

"Yugao, I'll be fine. It's not like I-"

"Like you what, Kakashi? You won't make the mistake of dying, like Hayate did?"

His hands grabbed her wrists, preventing her from running away, and she put up only a token resistance.

"That's not what I was going to say, and you know it." Kakashi's gaze hardened. "But that's _also_ the first time I've heard you say his name since he died. I know better than anyone that you don't want, or need, to be treated like glass. That doesn't make it okay to drown your grief out with bloodlust."

"Hypocrite."

Kakashi's weak grin beneath his mask went unnoticed. As he let go of her arms, she stayed still.

"Just because I do something doesn't mean that it's a good idea for others to do. I'm a bad man, Yugao, and I don't know why you think it's a good idea to follow in my footsteps."

"You're not bad, though. Everything you've done has been in service to the village. You're a paragon of what Konoha's shinobi should be. Hayate, he...he looked up to you. As much as the Sandaime, maybe more."

"That's the past, though." Kakashi said. "Where does it leave us now? We're not capable of being strong-armed out of this fight, thankfully, but we're outnumbered by both of the other sides. We're the smallest, and weakest, of the factions fighting for Konoha's future. Things don't look any better now than they did earlier today, or the day before."

"You'll find a way." Yugao comforted him. "You're Sharingan no Kakashi, aren't you? You've always been able, somehow, to make the impossible happen. We all have faith that you'll do it again."

Kakashi almost wanted to laugh. He was certainly, as Yugao had said, a pinnacle of what Konoha's shinobi should act like...but he was no miracle man. He couldn't summon victory from the jaws of defeat. To do that, he'd have to be Naruto.

He wondered how the blond Jounin was holding up, and whether or not the Rookie Twelve would find him soon.

"Maybe you need some faith in yourself, though?" Yugao giggled, giving him a light peck on the cheek. "Maybe there's something more waiting for you, somewhere down the road. I specifically remember an offer to try out some poses from those books you read so much?"

She flashed him a predatory grin before walking away.

"You'll have to prove yourself worthy, though."

Cats and dogs had more alike than most people would realize at a glance; both were pack-structured animals, both were predators, and both had better senses than humans...possibly better _sense_ than humans, as well. When raised together, they were just as comfortable in their own unique pack as they would be with their own kind.

Kakashi and Yugao had worked together for many years, and knew each others' habits far better than most. In the decade Kakashi had spent in the Anbu corps as a member of Team Ro, coming to be its captain in his third year, Yugao had spent more than half of that time under his direction. Yamato had joined shortly before her, and Itachi had entered the picture mere months after she had been made a member. There was a reason Kakashi had been the leader: he was the sum of their parts, hardened by a lifetime of war and loss.

For a great many ninja, it was true that after years of study and practice, it would be possible to truly excel in an area of the ninja arts, or two. Yugao was one of those masses, her life having been dedicated to Kenjutsu. There were others, however, that were a once-in-a-generation prodigy of natural talent...that would be Kakashi, and Itachi. Itachi's greatest skill was his Genjutsu, an area in which he was unmatched by anyone in living memory, but his talent in other areas exceeded the norms for others. Kakashi's specialty was his diversity of Ninjutsu, which his moniker as the _Issenjutsu no Meijin_ implied.

Still, Yugao didn't feel drowned-out compared to their talent. She understood better than anyone, perhaps even better than the two men themselves, that too much strength could just as easily be a burden.

She hoped that they could learn from their pasts.

* * *

"Gaara, what is that?"

The redhead looked up, seeing Kankuro in the doorway of his office. Despite the dark tanuki-like rings around his eyes, there was an obvious weariness to Gaara's face. From the way his older brother was looking at him, it was clear that Kankuro could see that.

"It's...wait, how long have you been there?" The weariness was in his monotonous voice as well, and Gaara cursed the fact that he was a very easy man to read.

"An hour. You haven't come home since Temari got back from Konoha and gave you that letter. What the hell is up?"

"Read it, and see for yourself."

Kankuro caught the letter as his younger brother threw it to him, and as he skimmed it, Gaara's disturbed state became more obvious; the letter was something along the lines of half-mission report, half-journal entry, written concisely in Temari's neat handwriting. It detailed the last few days prior to what had apparently become a civil war in Konoha, including the fact that Naruto had gone missing in action and was presumed to be Orochimaru's captive. That brought Kankuro a lot of pain, for two different reasons.

Naruto was the first, and in all honesty the _only,_ person that Gaara had ever considered his friend. The blond was someone who could be joked with, who took offense to very little, and who enjoyed putting smiles on everybody's faces. Kankuro liked him for more than the fact that he'd brought their family together again. Orochimaru, on the other hand, was viewed in a vile light due to his betrayal of Sunagakure and the death of the Yondaime Kazekage, prior to the botched invasion of Konoha that had resulted in an innumerable level of fatalities for Suna.

Kankuro had been a child, despite the fact that he had been older than most of the other competitors in those Chunin Exams, but he still felt shame for being complicit with such a horrific act. If it weren't for Naruto's friendship with Gaara, Kankuro knew that he wouldn't likely be in such a well-off position as being the brother of the Kazekage. Reparations had taken a large toll on Suna's already poor economy, but they had been recovering steadily, and the Chunin Exams earlier in the year had allowed them to reach a comparative economic height that Sunagakure hadn't seen since almost before Kankuro's birth.

It was all thanks to Gaara's leadership, and Gaara's leadership was all thanks to Uzumaki Naruto. Who was missing.

Temari broke into the room suddenly, nearly falling over Kankuro in her quest to reach Gaara.

"I know where they went!" She said, nearly bursting. "Not Naruto...Konoha's clan heirs."

"Where?" Gaara asked.

"Well...they're not in Konoha. They didn't come here, to Suna, or we'd have heard about it. Iwa is definitely a no-go on that front, they're not stupid. That leaves Kumo and Kiri, both nations that Naruto's visited and has ties to. There are two Hyuuga in the group, though...and even if we put that thought aside, if they were gathering an international group to look for Naruto, it would be smarter to go to Kiri first, since it's off the mainland."

"I'll go tell Baki that you're going to need him to fill in while you go on your, ah...unplanned vacation." Kankuro grinned. "Gotta get you some more quality time with your girl, huh? The rest is just a bonus."

"No."

"No?" Both of his older siblings questioned Gaara's statement.

"If I go out of the village, there's no guarantee that I won't be attacked by the Akatsuki in the same way that Naruto was in Kumo, and apparently right here in our homeland. It would also mean that I'd be unable to assist the village, and given that my tenure has been so short...I went to Kiri at Naruto's personal request, and I'm glad that I did. However...if I leave Suna, not only would it leave a mark on my reputation as the Kazekage, but I also know for a fact that I wouldn't go to Kiri. I would lay waste to every square inch of land from one ocean's edge to the other, until I had finally found Naruto and killed Orochimaru. I would become _Muad'Dib,_ and I would make this world suffer. I cannot allow myself to turn into that...no matter how much the old men of the desert might wish it."

"Then what do we do?" Kankuro asked.

"You two will go. Take Baki, if you feel the need, but I have faith in my older siblings. Leave whenever you wish, and send me a letter when you know where Naruto is being held, so that I can be there when we rescue him."

"If...if you're sure, Gaara, then that's what we'll do." Temari said.

"I'm certain. As much as it grieves me that I haven't seen Mei in several months, we're both busy people, and she needs to focus on her people just as much as I need to focus on mine. For the man who was the hero of her rebellion, however, I think she'll make an exception. I'll send a hawk to let her know that you're coming."

"There's no need." Kankuro laughed. "We'd beat it there, even if it left a full day ahead of us. Isn't that right, Temari?"

"I don't know, you've gotten pretty heavy over the last couple years. Besides, who said I'd let you fly on my fan?"

"The fact that I can make chakra strings that can cause you to crash into the male side of an onsen."

"If you try that, I swear to god, I'll break your neck faster than you've finished with any of your girlfriends."

"What girlfriends? They _keep rejecting me!_ "

"That's the joke, you moron."

Gaara let them bicker, despite the headache it was going to give him. They were going to be out of his hair for an indeterminate amount of time, and he would actually be able to hear birds chirping in the mornings, or the distantly echoing roar of a sandworm, rather than their constant arguments.

* * *

After Zabuza's seventh rendition of, _My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean,_ he'd had his mouth taped over and been tied upside-down to the ship's mast. In addition, the various, "crew members," had taken turns eating in front of him.

Thanks to Chouji and Akamaru's voracious appetites, the bladefish was half gone...but they'd been out to sea for just over two weeks now, and had no clue as to when they might find land again. Due to Zabuza's liberal use of the Suiton technique that allowed him to speed across the water, they had advanced at a speed of nearly four times their normal rate. They were well and truly lost.

"The fish are getting bigger..." Kiba noted from one arm of the ship's sail. An enormous, shadowy outline passed under the water beside their ship. "Like, really, really big."

"That's not a fish. It's a whale." Haku said, above Kiba in the crow's nest.

"What's a whale?"

"They're a...well, they're mammals, like humans. They birth live young, they have lungs, and on top of their meat being edible, the oil in their bodies can be used for generic purposes. Their teeth and bones..."

"No, no, skip all that. What's a whale?"

"It's a gigantic not-fish that could swallow this boat. The fact that you've seen one means that we've sailed _so far_ in the wrong direction, no thanks to _somebody..._ that we have reached part of the world that sank beneath the waves when the gods died."

"Fuck!" Came the collective cry.

"You mean to tell me," Shikamaru said, groaning in protest as he stood from his place on the rail of the ship, "that Zabuza managed to fuck up so bad that not only did we completely miss Kiri, but that we're something close to a quarter of the way around the world?"

"I hadn't realized it until now. My apologies."

"Troublesome. Sai, what's your call?"

"There isn't much of a call to make, Shikamaru-san. We simply have to turn the boat around, and hope that we manage to correct the angle enough that we run into Kiri. If all of us use the jutsu to increase the speed of the ship, we should be able to find out what went wrong with our trajectory in another day or two."

They would just have to wait.

Tayuya stayed under the shade of the sail, playing her flute and remembering the first time that Naruto had heard her play; it had been in his apartment, before they'd left Konoha to train under Jiraiya. So much had happened in the year and nine months since they'd gone...she never could have guessed that she would miss him as much as she did. It was painful...she understood what Oboro had meant, when the older woman had told her to never claim that it wouldn't come down to a life-or-death battle again.

She knew what Naruto had done. He'd sacrificed himself so that Orochimaru wouldn't be able to take her again. Tayuya was grateful for that, more than she would ever be able to express, but the sheer _pain_ she felt, just thinking about how badly he must be hurting...it was almost enough to make her wish that she was the one who'd been taken captive. The monotony of the waves, the harshness of the sun...they felt unnatural to her, someone used to being on land, and particularly as someone who'd been conditioned to spend most of her time underground.

When she found him, when she was with him again, she would make sure to let him know just how much she loved him.

* * *

"What do you mean, they're missing?" Temari asked.

"I mean exactly what I said." Mei replied. "It's been two and a half weeks since I sent Zabuza to get them. I haven't seen him since, and I've seen even less of those children. I'm taking this as seriously as you two are...I know that Konoha is one of your greatest allies, but Zabuza is one of my personal guards, and a great friend of mine. I would be a fool, to not be worried about them."

"She knows. We're just anxious because we have some pretty good friends on that boat, too." Kankuro said, a short laugh interrupting his words. "It's pretty old hat for us to be helping them out, and fighting against Orochimaru's forces simultaneously."

"Well, then at least the right people are on the job." Mei laughed.

Her office was much cleaner than the last time the older pair of the Kazekage family's siblings had been in it. Or, at least, it was _neater._ Cleanliness was an unachievable dream. It was more orderly, papers stacked neatly atop one another as more paperwork seemed to materialize out of nowhere every time a stack had finished. It was a struggle that their younger brother knew well, and therefore it was something that they'd both had to deal with.


	45. Mei's Wrath

**I'm alive and well, despite the fact that it's almost four in the morning. Thankfully, I don't have work today, so I'll get to relax and...yeah, no, you guys don't believe that for one second, do you.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. kam615: No, there's no crossovers. Just a lot of heavy references to some of my favorite science fiction/high fantasy series, though I'm leaving Tolkien's works out of that because I love the Middle-Earth lore too much. I do remember once that there was some dude who had a Naruto/One Piece crossover fic in the regular Naruto section, "because when I started the story there was no crossover section for those two," like this website has ever changed its UI and it would have been impossible to _make_ the crossover archive. I don't know, stupid people make me laugh. I still have that message chain in my inbox, I think?**

 **Gaara/Mei was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing, but we'll see if I can make it work out. The daimyo, as far as I'm concerned, can fuck right off; sure, they've got a regular military, but like...you're gonna try to tell the most powerful warrior in your country what they can or cannot do? Good luck getting out of that with your life, my man.**

 **2\. Zarrick Zule: You said it! Naruto's getting tortured and experimented upon, Konoha's in the middle of a civil war instead of looking for him, Higurashi is off in fuck knows where doing god knows what, and Zabuza has basically done the equivalent of sailing to China from California before turning back around, because he didn't want to use a map or a compass. The whole situation could probably have been resolved by Shikamaru looking at the stars at night to figure out their latitude and longitude, but fuck if he's not lazy enough that he'd avoid doing that much work.**

 **3\. OneLunchMan: Given his record at sea, I'll give him...three days, assuming he can't find an oasis. Then again, Zabuza's probably strong enough that he could use the Kubikiribocho as a parasol, and if _that_ isn't the weirdest fucking idea I've ever come up with...and you've reviewed almost every chapter I've put out, (aside from when you went on vacation,) so of the 272 reviews I'd say you've put down 42 of them. That's a pretty big chunk.**

 **4\. Drake Vallion: Sometimes my chapter titles are poetic, sometimes they're descriptive of the chapter. Last chapter was one of the latter situations. Hopefully, Zabuza _will_ hear the end of it, but I guarantee you that it'll only be Haku that stops raging at him for it. The Rookie Twelve don't give a fuck about his reputation.**

 **5\. ChakraTank35: Will Naruto escape? God, I hope so. It'd make the 35 chapters prior to his capture kind of pointless if he didn't...but I see where you're coming from. I will say, Orochimaru is being extra careful with Naruto; he doesn't actually want him to die, because where the fuck else will he find someone as durable as the Kyuubi Jinchuriki? Who else has that kind of vitality and regeneration? Either way, though, the gang is going to be late as hell. Like, so late that when they finally show up to class, the teacher locked the door so they have to sit outside.**

 **Oh well, though, they got to listen to Zabuza sing.** **Yo-ho, yo-ho, a pirate's life for me...**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

It was the third week of December, and wet snow turned to slush on Kirigakure's shores when Zabuza and his makeshift crew landed on the beach at last.

"Zabuza-sama, if you ever elect not to use a compass or map again, I will skin you alive with a senbon." Haku said. "We spent nine weeks at sea. Nine weeks, for a trip that should have taken us a single day."

"Well, geez, I'm sorry that you can't enjoy yourself on the water like I do. Besides, it's not my fault-"

Zabuza-sama, it is _entirely_ your fault. I packed a compass! A very nice compass, I might add, and _what_ did you do? You threw it overboard, because your overblown pride demanded that you act as foolishly as possible!"

"Haku, I really think you're blowing this out of proportion."

"All in favor of mutiny, say 'aye.'"

The unanimous chorus followed, and Zabuza's pride took its first blow since his time in Nami no Kuni. Worse, even! At least against Naruto, it had been a fight. Now he was getting outvoted against children who were just over half of his age, and mutinied against! Zabuza wished that the lightning storm had struck him down on that fateful night in early October, so that he didn't have to deal with this great shame. That was when the realization came to him that this must be what karma felt like; he had boasted and rejoiced to himself that night, and was paying for it now.

"Whatever. Let's just get to Mei's office."

Tayuya looked up, and put a small smile on her face. She hadn't seen the Mizukage since Suna's Chunin Exams, and it had been more than a year since the rebellion in Kirigakure had been successful in overthrowing Yagura's regime.

The rebuilding process had been hard on Kiri, those forces loyal to Yagura having their faith shaken by the Yondaime Mizukage's death. The village had remained undamaged, however, and Mei's transition to the position of Mizukage had been relatively smooth. The long festival had helped things calm down immensely, and soon enough, Kiri was back on its feet.

Though many of the ninja who had been loyal to Yagura lamented that the rebellion's hero hadn't even been Kirigakure-born, anyone who had fought on his side knew what Naruto had put into the fight. Just as Zabuza had done in the battle against the Akatsuki in Suna, many of the former rebellion's shinobi had picked up on what they'd started calling the _henge bunshin._ If Naruto were there to hear about it, he would no doubt have been beaming with pride at the knowledge. He didn't believe in the idea of secrecy regarding his most basic of techniques, particularly since he was one of the only people capable of abusing the trick so profusely.

"But what about the boat, and going to a dock?"

Zabuza huffed, creating a _Kage Bunshin_ and sending it aboard, to steer the ship back to Kirigakure's nearest port. He really needed to thank Naruto for that technique, it was so much more advantageous than the _Mizu Bunshin._ Most importantly, it didn't have a distance requirement.

"Like I was saying...let's go." Zabuza's arms dropped to his sides, and as he took off, the other seventeen ninja followed behind him.

* * *

"You did _WHAT?_ Zabuza, do you have _any_ idea how-"

"I'm-"

"DON'T YOU INTERRUPT ME, YOU STUPID SON OF A BITCH!" Mei shouted her bodyguard down, lava visibly dripping from the corner of her mouth to burn a hole in the floor underneath her feet. Zabuza took a step back and bowed down on one knee, and he didn't cry out when Mei's front-handed slap came across his face hard enough to knock him to the floor.

"Do you have any idea how worried I was? How we all were? I thought you might have died! We sent out search parties, we did everything we could to try to locate you and your passengers, and now you come back two months later to tell me that it's because you _REFUSED TO USE A COMPASS?_ "

Though Ao's eyes were hidden by the metal patches bolted to his skull, his nervous frown was all Tayuya needed to see in order to keep herself on her toes. Mei's anger was one that rose slowly, and lasted for a long time, but her enraged mood had come to a boil almost immediately. There was no doubt that it was well-deserved; Zabuza's moronic decision to avoid common sailing equipment had effectively endangered them all. Thankfully, no real harm had come of it, save for Shikamaru's apparent aversion to all seafood.

"Gaara-koi's siblings are here. Temari was particularly anxious to see you, Tayuya." Mei moved on, setting her anger for Zabuza's actions in its place as she spoke to the group at large. "Oboro, Rei-koi, Kouga-koi, it's good to see you again. Sakura, Sasuke, Tenten...congratulations on your promotions. And to all of you, welcome to Kirigakure!"

As Zabuza began to stir, Mei shot a pointed look down to his position, and he slumped back to the ground.

Zabuza was not a smart man. Zabuza was a _wise_ man. Zabuza was not a good boy.

"It's good to be back." Tayuya said, taking charge as the group's speaker, given her history with Mei. "We can talk about our mission tomorrow. Do you have anywhere we can stay?"

"I'll have rooms prepared. Will the building where you, Naruto-koi, and Jiraiya stayed, last time, be sufficient?"

"Yes."

Just like that, the matter was settled.

* * *

The next day, Tayuya and Sai stood in Mei's office once again, with Zabuza returned in his customary spot as Mei's right-side guard in the back of the room. The ex-nukenin showed no sign of acknowledging the violence that had been leveled against him the day before, and stood at attention, with the Kubikiribocho strapped to his back. Ao was, as usual, standing on Mei's left. Though his eyepatches still unnerved Tayuya, she focused on the Mizukage instead. Temari and Kankuro stood behind the two Konoha-nin, on either side of the door.

"So." Mei began. "I know that you have a purpose in coming here besides an attempt at seeking asylum. Things are never simple, when it comes to ninja. Sai, is that your name? I received your message, and sent Zabuza to retrieve you. Despite the displacement of time, you stand here before me, so now I'd like to know what it was that you wished to speak with me about."

"You are correct, my name is Sai, and I am the leader of our mission. It's about my Taicho, Uzumaki Naruto. I don't doubt that by now you're aware that he was listed as missing-in-action with a reward for being returned, dead or alive, and as a captive of Orochimaru? Our self-prescribed mission is to rescue him. I had been hoping that you might be able to give us some aid, be it a place to stay, supplies, or even some ninja to spare for our cause."

"Because you hope that my good standing with Naruto-koi will sway me?"

"No. I ask because there is very little I will not do to ensure the safety of the future Hokage. If he requires my action, then I will act. If he requires my life, then I will give it to him. I am one among many in the roots that support the life of our great tree, and Naruto is the ring that will signify a new age for us."

"And you say you...sent yourself on this mission?"

"Only in the eyes of what passes for law in Konoha. Before he forced us to leave him behind, my Taicho left me in charge of the mission, and I deemed that the mission would not be complete until he was safe within Konoha's walls once more. As I said, I am one among the roots that serve the tree as a whole...not the branches that reach out from the trunk."

"So you're AWOL. With all of Konoha's major clan heirs, plus a few extraneous members."

"Yes, in layman's terms."

"Are you aware that your absence has caused Konoha to sink into a civil war?"

Sai's expression didn't change, but the twitches in his left hand betrayed his thoughts. Tayuya, on the other hand, went wide-eyed.

"I'll take that as a, 'no.' What will you do now?"

"The same thing we've been doing. I did not force any of the others to come with us, the mission was supposed to be one that was meant solely for Tayuya-san and myself. They chose this path themselves, and if what you say is true, then I doubt their return would make things better. If I'm correct, then the root of the war is over Tsunade-sama's actions in the two years since her ascension to the seat of Hokage, and the clan heirs' disappearance sent the conditions to their breaking point. Taking this into consideration, the safest course of action is to continue with our mission. Taicho would be supported by an easy majority of the Council of Clans, as well as both of the remaining Sannin and the three elders of Konoha who served in the First Great War. If we bring him back, he can replace Tsunade and end the civil war."

Sai hadn't hesitated for a moment before launching into his response.

"And what is your plan?" Mei asked.

"Tayuya knows the locations of all of Orochimaru's major operational bases. Our initial task force was seven ninja, but now our number is more than doubled. We would go from here to Kumogakure, and then begin snuffing out Orochimaru's lairs individually. Our original mission was to only seek out and destroy his various safehouses, but the technology required for most of his experiments is apparently too large and expensive to install into each of those. That ruled out almost the entire map of the Elemental Nations, except for ten bases dotted across the eastern side of the map. Two of those are in Kaminari no Kuni, so we would be able to eliminate them with relative safety, given Orochimaru's status as an enemy of the world. From there, we will eliminate every base until we find Taicho."

The logic had obvious flaws, such as what might come to pass if Konoha found out that she was effectively harboring nukenin, but Mei couldn't help but be impressed by the dedication of Naruto's comrades. With that, and the knowledge that her victory against Yagura would have been impossible without Naruto's aid, her choice had already been made.

"Stay as long as you like. I can't give you much in the way of supplies, but you've been travelling with Haku for more than two months. He should be effective at helping round out the skills of your group, since none of you look like you'd be particularly good at stealth and assassination..."

Sai just smiled. It was the same nerve-wrenching grin as always, one that confused and disturbed too many people for the effect to be considered coincidental.

The less she knew, the better.

"We're coming too." Kankuro said, causing Tayuya and Sai to turn around and look at him. "Gaara's orders, but I'd do it even if they weren't. Again, Mei-chan, sorry I couldn't convince him to come over here."

"That's alright." Mei giggled. "My dreams for children can wait a little while longer."

The two older siblings tried their hardest not to picture the idea of their younger brother becoming a father at sixteen. The thought was mortifying, and that horror was only compounded upon by the terrible relationship that all three siblings had shared with their own father. The parents' international status and long distance relationship would only serve to complicate the idea of a child between the two of them.

As Kankuro silently offered up a prayer to the dead gods, for them to forbid such a thing from happening, Temari took over for him.

"We want to help you, and we want to help him." She said. "We owe him more than we can ever give back, but maybe we can call it even after this."

"You know, I used to tell Naruto that he was too nice. Then, I thought that Konoha was too nice. But maybe I'm just wrong all-around, and I was conditioned to think that cruelty is the only way to survive." Tayuya replied with a wry smile. "Thanks for coming out here, so we didn't need to go to Suna."

"No problem. It's not like I feel bad for dropping a forest on you, or anything."

The two girls shared a laugh.

* * *

"Naruto-kun, I have a guest for you today." Orochimaru grinned as he spoke. "You remember our conversation, months ago, when Kabuto let it slip? Well, I brought your...would cousin be the correct term? I don't know. The Uzumaki clan was quite massive, even compared to some of today's clans. Though the two of you share your clan name, I managed to sample the DNA, and as it turns out, the chance that you're blood-related in anything but name is less than one percent! Isn't that incredible?"

"Die in a ditch and rot in hell." Naruto said.

While he couldn't see, the months of remaining in the same room and listening to echoing noise had given him some idea of the size of the room. He was in the middle of a wall that was ten feet long on either side of him, approximately the same height, and between twenty and twenty-five feet long. Based on the distance of his voice whenever Orochimaru entered and exited the room, the doorway was somewhere around sixteen to eighteen feet down the wall on his left side.

"That's not nice, Naruto-kun. She's your family, and besides that, she's going to be one of your guardians! Just like I had the Sound Four, you're going to have...oh, I hate the unoriginality of it, but you might as well call them the Sound Three, unless you have something else in mind. I know it's disappointing that I couldn't think up a better name, but there's three of them, so you'll just have to make due. Uzumaki Karin, Hozuki Suigetsu, and the clanless Juugo...yes. Juugo of the west, Karin of the south, and Suigetsu of the east. Tayuya is the guardian of the north, so you'll have four protectors. Isn't that nice?"

Naruto seethed with rage, but he couldn't do anything about it.

"Ironically, or maybe as an act of divine symbolism, you destroyed the northern lair of Otogakure...just like you turned Tayuya away from me. I felt it, when her Infuin was erased...though, I'd thought she was dead, so it was a surprise to me. Still, I was impressed. Don't think I didn't notice the marking you gave her, where her seal used to be, either. Your clan symbol...such a small thing, but an impossibly large gesture."

"What?"

"I may not have any places to stay in Mizu no Kuni, Naruto-kun, but I have eyes and ears _everywhere._ I know all about that final battle with the Yondaime Mizukage...congratulations for that, by the way. I know that you were almost out of chakra when you finished him off. And then, sealing the Sanbi into her? Obviously, Jiraiya took care of that, but didn't you find it strange that he took so long to make a storage seal? Even for a Biju, it's a simple matter of putting the beast into the seal's matrix. It's not particularly hard, especially for a Fuinjutsu master like my old teammate."

"What are you implying?"

"I'm not implying anything, Naruto-kun. I'm explaining that Jiraiya used your chakra to create the seal on Tayuya's body. Whether it was because he thought that using your chakra would acclimate her body to a demonic presence, or because he couldn't be bothered to work himself further, or because he actually ran out of chakra because he was a fool and made her seal overly complicated...that's why she has the Uzumaki spiral where my cursed seal used to be. In essence, it's an irremovable slavery marker. It tells anyone who can see it that she belongs to you."

He had to be lying. Jiraiya wouldn't do that! The two men had their differences, but his teacher wouldn't just...use him like that, would he? That would go against all of the morals that he'd done his best to instill in Naruto.

Unfortunately, the logic was sound, as far as Naruto knew. His gift for Fuinjutsu was a hereditary talent, not something he'd studied for decades like Jiraiya or Orochimaru, so he wouldn't know for certain that his captor was or wasn't telling the truth. Naruto _hated_ when people lied to him. Unfortunately, Orochimaru had a tendency to reveal truths that ended up being more painful than anything else.

"Anyway, I strayed off-topic for a few minutes there, but...that's alright. Kabuto-kun is bringing Karin down to see you, and this will be her first time meeting another Uzumaki in the flesh. I hope she enjoys it as much as you do."

Footsteps came down the hall, finally stopping in the doorway, and Naruto heard a faint, feminine, "Oh my god."

"Karin, this is your clansman, Uzumaki Naruto." Orochimaru said. "Unfortunately, he's blind, but he's still able to hear and speak."

"I'll take my leave, Orochimaru-sama." Kabuto's voice rang through the room before he walked away.

"Naruto?" The woman's voice asked.

"Yeah, that's me. Hey, you mind ripping off these bindings so I can kick the snake's ass? I know I'm blind, but trust me, I could do it. I mean, in a day or so. Once I got my chakra back. The fucker's got me strapped in here pretty good, and the machine is draining my chakra like air outta some shredded bike tires. Wait, shit, do you know what a bike is? They aren't exactly common, especially in ninja villages. I mean...ah, whatever. Nice to meet you."

"You too."

Orochimaru stopped paying to the conversation, focusing instead on the three test-tube babies whose growths he had accelerated. In the last two months, they had grown to the approximate ages of four and five years old, with both of Naruto's clan-bred children displaying their Dojutsu.

Ah, the wonders of modern medicine.


	46. What Is, and What Should Never Be

**I'm sorry for taking so long; a few...familial obligations, let's say?** **Those came up.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. Noahendless: I keep this pace up by sacrificing literally all of my free time. I haven't played any video games in like, three days. As far as plans...this story is taking on a much larger life of its own than I originally would have thought, since I quite literally started writing with _no_ plan whatsoever.**

 **2\. Guest 1 & 2: Yeah, this arc is moving slowly, but there's a lot going on that I'd feel bad for making you miss. I mean, sure, I could skip over shit and end it, but flashback reveals aren't really my thing. Also, the Mokuton experiment was an entirely different sort of thing, if I remember correctly; didn't Orochimaru capture young children and try to force-implant Hashirama's DNA into them? In this case, he's growing brand new people by synthesizing and combining unrelated genetic material. (Eye membranes and blood.) Besides, it's a plot point, even though you can't see that since it's inside of my head. If you're really that disinterested in it, you can & should skip over any section where someone says, "Naruto-kun."**

 **3\. OneLunchMan: One way or another, eventually, Orochimaru is going to get struck by the righteous hand of god. Tendo Pein did say, though, that he would need time to prepare for the assault; personally, I figure that two months of planning to go on an excursion to hunt down one of the most dangerous/hard-to-kill men alive is pretty lenient. I mean, it's not like Orochimaru's going anywhere...or even knows what's about to hit him. He's a bit preoccupied. However, since you mentioned it, I threw something in at the end of this chapter to go along with a little world-building.**

 **"Konan, I can _fly._ I'm not going to get lost."**

 **And then, later, he asks himself:**

 **"...why do I get the feeling that I've circled the same grove of trees for three hours?"**

 **4\. Drake Vallion: That's one of the things I've always appreciated about Orochimaru; he's a villain, sure, but even for a ninja he has a nearly Naruto-esque complex about telling the truth and staying true to his word. Even if you go back to his earliest lines, he wasn't lying; the Ten no Infuin _does_ give Sasuke immense power, he draws on it relatively constantly from the middle of Part 1 until Itachi destroys it in Shippuden. He also _could_ give back Nawaki and Dan to Tsunade...just not as living, breathing people. They still would have been corpses. I don't doubt that he had bodies prepared for the jutsu.**

 **5\. Tsukoblue: For reasons that will become clear in this chapter, but also because of a response I gave in my last AN: Naruto is durable as _fuck,_ and his regeneration factor makes him an experimental dream come true. No matter what happens to him, he turns out fine as long as the end result isn't, "Naruto becomes a corpse."**

 **6\. SaKreD4LIFE: If it helps, consider that it's all basically Jiraiya's fault. At the point where he attacked Hiashi...that's when everything went straight to hell. Something like that _demands_ a battle, and not even Tsunade stepping down would have solved that political fiasco. And, of course, Tsunade's not going to let her one good teammate run off half-cocked and get himself killed; she has a conscience. Also, up until Tobi decide(s/d) to kill people, there were no casualties, only POWs, because they're all Konoha citizens and they didn't want to kill their own allies.**

 **Of course, Tobi, the Good Boy, god's chosen and most favorite son...he can do no wrong.**

 **At that point, though, the war has been raging. Stopping when bit players die would be like...well, like an escort mission where an NPC who isn't your cargo dies, and you reset because you wanted to save them for some reason. But yeah, blame Jiraiya. He needs to be shamed some more.**

 **Also, would it really be, "turning," them if...nah, I won't spoil it.**

 **...it's past 5 AM, I need to be up in an hour for work.**

 **Kill me. Just get it over with.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"So tell me, Naruto-kun, how is your mind? How do you feel?" Orochimaru asked.

"Go to he-" Naruto was cut off by an electrical surge through his body, strong enough to make the less-constrained parts of his body shake.

"The more you talk like that, the more that'll happen, Naruto-kun. Please, believe me."

Karin watched on passively, knowing that she would likely receive an even harsher punishment if she tried to help her long-lost family. Orochimaru was not a kind man, but he was meticulous about creating and ensuring an imbalance of power between himself and any of his subjects or subordinates. It allowed him to get away with far more than any Kage or village leader would; despite the fact that Orochimaru would likely be easily overwhelmed, given the sheer weight of numbers against him, the absolute fear that every soldier of Oto carried in their heart prevented them from stopping him.

The mind was a powerful thing, and from the looks of it, her cousin was an incredibly difficult one to break. But how, and why? It was true that strong emotions, particularly negative ones, could be used to purposefully induce a kind of mental tunnel vision, but most people didn't possess the will to keep up with the kind of assault that Orochimaru provided. So how had he done it?

Her eyes moved down to the _Shiki Fuin_ on his stomach, and the answer became clear: Naruto was a Jinchuriki. After Uzushio's destruction, most of the surviving Uzumaki had been hunted down, but some had survived; one of them had gone to Konoha. Uzumaki Kushina had been a feared name in the Third Great War, and Konoha's retained Biju was the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

The Kyuubi, infamous for its pure destructive power, and its hatred for all of mankind. If the machine was truly pulling away all of his chakra, then it would be draining the Kyuubi's malevolent energy as well, and the opened gateway would potentially allow the Kyuubi to influence Naruto's mind. Violent rage, and hate, were the only things keeping him sane...but the coping mechanism would only continue to work for as long as he was restrained. If he held the hate in his heart for too long, it would begin affecting him just as adversely as an exposure to Orochimaru's experiments.

"Orochimaru-sama, what are you looking at?" Karin asked.

"Ah, yes, come here." Orochimaru motioned for her. to sit down next to him, and he offered her the sheets of data that he'd compiled. "Can you read these?"

"They're life-support system readings, aren't they? The same ones that you've used for Juugo in the past. They keep the subject in a suspended animation, but time still progresses normally for them. Different from a cryostasis chamber."

"That's right. Tell me, what do you think?"

"These are...children? _His_ children? Orochimaru-sama, you can't tell me that you're-"

"Ah, ah, don't spoil the surprise for him. Naruto-kun can still hear us, you know!"

"My apologies, Orochimaru-sama. But...is that really the purpose? Looking at the two younger ones, it makes it look like your aim is..."

"That's the idea. Sometimes, advancement requires a bit more than the genetic process. Sometimes...direct, human intervention is required."

"Why did you bring me here, and show me this? I won't believe you if you tell me that you're trying to make me a more integral figure to your operations."

Orochimaru laughed.

"True enough, Karin. Even after the deaths of the Sound Four, and Kimimaro, I still have Kabuto to rely on, and his skill far surpasses theirs...in some ways, even mine, as well. His talent as a medic has allowed him to access and utilize jutsu that I could never have achieved, or dreamed of. You, however...you are special. Naruto-kun is special, as well. Though I beat him, it was only by a fluke...and here, have this result as well. It has to deal with your own genetic makeup."

Karin read over the next document he handed her; it was a comparison between her DNA and, she assumed, Naruto's.

"Less than one percent?"

"Do you know anything about the Uzumaki clan's history?" Orochimaru countered her question with another question.

"Only about the fall of Uzushio." She replied.

"Uzushio had no other clans but the Uzumaki, and they were still large enough to form their own, minor, village. The breadth of their stock was larger than four clans in any village you could name, and despite the fact that they all descend from the same ancestor, their gene pool was highly diverse. Legend says that they were descended from the Rikudo Sennin's elder brother, and are highly gifted as a result. Naruto-kun is not only a Jinchuriki himself, but the child of a Jinchuriki, and the great-great-grandson of another. They Kyuubi's energy flows in his veins like blood, so you could almost say that it was destiny for him to become the demon's host."

Orochimaru still remembered that night, barely more than seventeen years ago. He remembered the terror that demon had instilled into him, a primal instinct that declared he would _die_ against the might of the monstrous fox. He remembered the light as it left Minato and Kushina's eyes; the horror on Tsunade's face as her unknowing son died, and Jiraiya's mind-breaking grief at the sight of two of his students lost their lives...it had been heart-wrenching, to see the two people he cared for most, fall into such great pains again.

And that man, that masked man who'd called the beast forth. The single-eyed visage had haunted his dreams for weeks after the event had come and gone. Though Orochimaru wished to end the man's life himself, the first rights fell to Naruto, robbed of his parents by the mystery figure's actions.

The truth, it seemed, was that Naruto was a cursed child. His very existence damned others around him, and only now had it come back to affect the blond himself. Orochimaru's experiments had been done in the name of making sure that nobody would ever die from anything but a natural cause...and yet, everywhere he turned, he had seen more lives lost. The white snake, slithering across the tombstones of his jointly-buried parents, had given him the idea in the first place; while it was true that he could bring the dead back to life with the Nidaime Hokage's _Edo Tensei_ technique, Orochimaru had always desired that Kinjutsu's use to be made irrelevant.

If nobody could die in the first place, there would be no reason to attempt to kill them. If killing could not be done, then war would be an impossible task. All he had to do was perfect the technique, and peace could be achieved with its widespread use.

Uzumaki Naruto, the strongest of the Jinchuriki and the man whose sacrifices would further the cause Orochimaru had fought for over the course of his career as a shinobi...he was a necessary casualty. The passage of time could not be rewound; his parents, Jiraiya's parents, Tsunade's little brother, Shizune's uncle...they, and so many more, couldn't be returned to the world of the living. Not really. But he could ensure that some day, somewhere along the line, nobody would ever have to bear the burden of losing their parents before adulthood.

Naruto, and even these would-be children of his, were a means to that end. While an immortal, eternal life had been his own personal goal, it was not his original one. To understand the mysteries of the past, and forge ahead to solve the problems of the future, was a secondary objective. It was true that his experiments were considered immoral, and described as crimes against humanity. Even so, he could not stop. Progress would always be hindered by naysayers and conformists; it was his job, as a scientist and a researcher, to avoid listening to them.

Looking at the trio of children, he sighed. The firstborn looked sickly, as though it wouldn't be likely to survive. The latter two were little more than cannon fodder, their genetic code synthesized and able to be replicated.

"Orochimaru-sama, you said...I was special?"

"You are the one on whom my hopes lie, in this area. Soon, I may have to...abandon a few projects." The White Snake motioned toward the papers he'd originally allowed her to view. "Your job will not be to take over, but to improve upon my design. Everything you need will already be available, and I can walk you through the process, but your task will be to monitor growth."

"I understand."

"You are also...hmm, how do I put this? You are crucial to a particularly...benevolent...ambition of mine. Something that Naruto-kun can take in good faith, as it were, regarding my feelings." The Sannin's gaze moved over to his blond captive with laser-like precision.

He took no joy in his actions. He only did what needed doing.

The long-lost twitch in his heart would have told him that he was doing the right thing.

* * *

"You seem in need of help, my friend."

As soon as the words were spoken, dozens of weapons had been leveled toward Itachi and Maya. The pair of Uchiha paid no heed to them, however, as Kakashi turned to face them.

"What are you doing here, Itachi?"

"The masked man is hiding in Konoha. I came to hunt him...as I'm sure you can understand."

"The one responsible for the Kyuubi attack?"

The shinobi threatening Itachi backed away somewhat at that knowledge. If the nukenin was going to attempt to eliminate the perpetrator of that catastrophe, despite his infamy, then he was more than welcome to try. Not one of the ninja in Kakashi's camp had forgotten what it felt like to see the larger-than-life Yondaime Hokage die before their very eyes.

"The leader of the organization hunting Naruto, and the other Jinchuriki."

It was a brazen thing, for Itachi to appear so openly inside of his homeland. The last time he'd returned, two years ago, had ended rather violently. But now...now, he had a _real_ purpose for being here.

Konoha needed his help, more than it ever had.

"And your intentions regarding this war?" Hiashi asked. Though the Hyuuga clan head had always believed in the Byakugan's superiority to the Sharingan, he maintained a healthy respect for the strongest Uchiha he'd met in his lifetime. There was a reason that Itachi's clan had venerated him.

"What else? I would never side with Danzo, and the allies I had from my time in the village are all here before me. I respect Tsunade and Jiraiya, and my talents are directly opposed to theirs, but...I cannot sit idly by while the village is in chaos. Maya and I will do our best to keep on your side while we hunt Tobi down."

"Is he the one behind the killings? Nobody was willing to make the first move, but now it's a real war-zone."

"Of course he would." Itachi hung his head. "When he allied with Kiri during the Third Great War, when he made the Akatsuki, when he destroyed Kushina's seal and released the Kyuubi...everything he's done, since his death, has been to antagonize and destroy Konoha. He was the one that incited the Uchiha to revolt, which caused me to be given the command to eliminate the threat they posed to the village."

"Since his death?" Kakashi questioned. "I know you wouldn't joke about something like this, but that choice of words leaves the rest of us a little in the dark."

"I don't know how he survived, but you can find his name listed on the memorial stone. I know you've seen him before, Kakashi...his mask only has one eye. The _right_ eye."

"You can't be serious. The cave crumbled in on itself, there was no possible way he could have-" The last Hatake said, before being interrupted.

The man who had disturbed his dreams and made him hate the Sharingan was there, suddenly, in all his black-robed villainy.

"Is that doubt, in your voice, Kakashi?" Tobi said as he appeared, fading into the world from his _Kamui._ "I would have expected better from the man who took my eye and used it to become the man who's famed as the _Issenjutsu no Meijin._ "

Two Hyuuga rushed at Tobi, and flames licked at their bodies until they turned to cinders.

"Obito...it was you?" Kakashi's heart fell, even as a wall of cold fury began to rise in his mind.

This was the man whose actions had killed Rin. This was the man who had killed his sensei, the Yondaime Hokage, and his wife; Naruto's parents. This was the man he could blame everything on.

"Of course it was me. Who else would know exactly how to strike at Minato-sensei that night? Who else would know that you would hate being left alive, more than death, as your teacher died before you? Who else? Only me. However...Obito is a dead man, a dead name. I am Tobi, and Tobi is a good boy. That's why the Hokage and her forces are coming here at this very moment, Kakashi...are you ready?"

Tobi faded away, back into his _Kamui,_ and Kakashi grimaced. Ever since the killings had begun, they had taken extra precaution, but a full-scale battle reminiscent of the Great Wars...they were outnumbered, and while quantity didn't always matter, it certainly made a difference.

The smell of smoke came from above; someone had set fire to the roof of the building...probably Tobi.

"Everyone, get outside!" Kakashi yelled.

An ancient ghost from his past had appeared, and it was taking all of Kakashi's willpower not to chase after his long-lost teammate. However, the battle that lay ahead would demand all of his attention; he would have to entrust Tobi's death to Itachi.

When all was said and done, if he was left above the ground, Kakashi would only have room in his heart to grieve.

* * *

"Konan."

"Nagato?" The blue-haired angel asked.

"Sasori has informed me that the children of Konoha have appeared in Kirigakure. I will be going to them...not as Pein, but as myself."

Though the rain fell outside, as it always had, it was silent in the halls of God's Tower. It was here that he had first embraced tranquility, where the Rinnegan had revealed the paths he had not chosen...though it said nothing of the choices he had yet to make. All he could do was seek to build his own world of peace, no matter who had to suffer pain in order to ensure its existence. That was the mission of the Akatsuki, no matter what, "Tobi," sought to enact.

A world where he had protected Yahiko. A world where they had gone with Jiraiya in the first place, and the Akatsuki had never existed. A world where Hanzo had accepted the ideal of bringing peace to their war-scarred land. A world where his clan had not been exterminated, and forced to flee...that had been the most painful, and loving, of the dreams that he had inherited.

Nagato had seen the end of one homeland. He would not let another be destroyed, no matter what; when Amegakure had been threatened during the Third Great War, by Suna to the west and Iwa from the north, he had swept them all aside. The Rinnegan did not tell him the correct path to take, only the ones that should not be taken...but that was enough for him to understand what needed to be done.

In every vision, as weeks and years continued to cycle through themselves, there were several constants: his own death, for example...but a man who could only be Uchiha Madara, as well, and someone who Nagato believed to be the Kyuubi Jinchuriki. A deep-hued stone had called to him in his dreams, the cry for help from a son he'd never sired.

The son-who-was-not screamed in agony for his father, for any man who he'd called father in all of his lifetimes, across the endless void. He asked not for help, but for salvation, because none but a god could deliver him from the evil brought upon him. Dead and gone were the worlds that had seen the gods rise. Their veneration was ended in fire and blood, by the hands of the creatures they had summoned to act as their hands.

The Kyuubi no Kitsune, however, had balled its fists and visited violence upon those who had ordered its creation. It was a being of unfettered malice, of a seething malignance that ran so deeply as to flow in the lifeblood of the earth. From the castle in the desert sky that housed the great God-Emperor, a prescient _Shai-Hulud_ whose great maw blessed the dunes with wind, to the sunken skull-shaped catacomb that was guarded by the ape-lord...the demonic spirit had roamed the earth, seeking out its brethren and hunting down the gods.

That which had been made could make anew, or tear apart. When the gods had bargained with demons, tricked them to their yoke and destroyed all hope of returning to the underworld...the Jubi had given its life to rend heaven asunder, and erase any portal to return to it. Forced to remain in the mortal plane, they had been hunted; it had taken decades, then centuries, but their ability to hide was ever impossible to place against the cunning of a fox.

The son-that-was-not, he came from that same place of being. But, unlike the Kyuubi, he was not cunning. He was not all-powerful. And most importantly of all, he could not truly _hate_ the way that he should. He lacked the desire to truly make another understand the anguish inside of his soul.

That was what made him the son-that-was-not, and not Nagato's son. But as the father-who-was-not, Nagato understood that he and the boy were different. Despite his ability to see and understand the past, the past-that-was-not and the future that would not be, Uzumaki Nagato was trapped by the grief that had created his alias.

Uzumaki Naruto was not.

Uzumaki Naruto would overcome his pain.


	47. The Uncaged Bird's Final Flight

**Here we go.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. Lord Bedhead: Seek enlightenment, and ye shall be enlightened. This chapter had three main points: Orochimaru got a bit more humanization, I set the stage for the end of the civil war, and the world will continue its path toward knowing pain. Also, it allowed me to do a little more world-building and establish the Rinnegan's importance to the multiverse/paths of fate.**

 **Nagato, through both the Rinnegan and the influence of Antal Dara, (the last living dead god, that blue ball from Uzushio, Nagato's ancestral home,) can see the past, and can also see all the things that won't/can't be allowed to happen in the future. It effectively gives him a form of precognition, though it's more of a, "figure out what can't be done, and decide on a course of action from the remaining options."**

 **The Kyuubi is the one who's responsible for the deaths of the gods, and the Jubi gave its life in order to allow that to happen.**

 **The children are Naruto's own flesh and blood, but not born from woman. The Kyuubi referred to Rei and Kouga, lost in the Labyrinth for more than a hundred years, as having chakra that was, "his, and yet...not." We can imply that their father was the clan head, just as they insisted (with Oboro) for Naruto to be, and know nothing about their mother. But they have red hair, and take the last name of Uzumaki, and there's not very many people in the timeline who could make them fit that description. Even fewer of them have been introduced in this fic.**

 **Do you smell what I'm cooking?**

 **2\. quinton klokateer 666: Thanks for the compliment! I try my best to make compelling stories, even though they may not (as some anons have said, which I'll respond to in a second,) always make sense in the immediate perspective.**

 **3\. Drake Vallion: Yeah, for the majority of villains in Naruto, that's true. The only exceptions to that are Danzo and Black Zetsu, unless we're gonna pull from the anime, which I didn't watch. (The Naruto wiki is a wonderful resource.)**

 **4\. Noahendless: Walk the road of the gods who have died, and see why no other man besides you treads that bone-laden path. Blood of the deep magic flows strongly in that land, but with none to tap the mana, it runs rampant. Here, there be demons.**

 **5\. OneLunchMan: And intensify he shall, though the center of attention this chapter isn't him. I wonder how he'll manage to get out of the corner he's been backed into? Everybody's favorite Good Boy can't die yet, can he?**

 **6\. Guest 1 & 2 (I'm assuming you're the same people): First, the WoT references aren't exactly subtle if you've read the series. Second...how exactly were they confusing? I'll admit, it's dragged on for a number of chapters that's far longer than I expected, but there's three theaters that need attention paid to them: Konoha's civil war, the Rookie Twelve, (and their growing entourage,) and Naruto's captivity.**

 **Sometimes, story arcs are longer than others. Consider: post-VOTE was 4 chapters, Uzushio was 4 chapters, Kiri was 7 chapters, Kumo was 5 chapters, Suna was 10 chapters (didn't hear anyone complaining about a long arc _then,_ funnily enough,) the Orochmaru-hunting mission was 6 chapters, and our current arc (the end of the timeskip between canon's Part 1 and Shippuden) is 10 chapters as of this release. It could go on for two more, it could go on for five more. If I really felt like it, I could probably make it go on for _fifty_ more, just to spite you.**

 **Also, if, "babymaking through gruesome torture," is all that you've gotten from the scenes with Orochimaru and Naruto...shit, please never watch _Neon Genesis Evangelion._ It's too meta for your fourteen-year-old brain. ****Meanwhile, you think this is a bad end? You think I've come anywhere close to an end, at all? That's some weak sauce you've got, my man.**

 **And I mean, if you don't wanna read any further, fine. But saying something like, "I hope people drop this story because I couldn't be bothered to figure shit out," is about the most pathetic insult you could hurl.**

 **7\. Login Nah (Guest): I'm not sure, honestly. I'm trying to pick up the pacing, so this chapter may feel a bit rushed in comparison, but you're right...I need to get a goddamn move on with this plot. The war's purpose is to provide a sense of the Konoha that Naruto will (eventually) return to: one that needs a leader they can unite behind, and whether or not they believe him to be that potential leader.**

 **The "captured by Orochimaru," has to do with: making Orochimaru and the main characters from Oto relevant, providing a series of unanswerable-at-the-time questions that I can tie up together in the endgame, (or just later on in the story,) and giving Naruto what would/should normally be a career-ending handicap as a ninja.**

 **I understand the disappointment over losing the fast pacing of the story overall, and it wasn't my intention to drag this arc out for this long, but I bit off a bit more than I could chew because it was important to me that none of the Rookie Twelve die. Everyone else is, pretty much, fair game.**

 **Don't let Zetsu fool you, though. Ninja don't taste gamey.**

 **8\. SaKreD4LIFE: You got the first part right, about loyalty in the first place. The Oto rebellion isn't something I have planned, but it's a nice idea that I might store away for a future fic. Or, potentially, much later in this one. After all, Orochimaru's a pretty slippery bastard.**

 **Anybody want to take bets on who'll win when Pein finally gets to the showdown?**

 **If I'm a monkey, then who the fuck is that poor sucker at the circus? Does he, too, have a coconut gun that fires in spurts? Is he bigger, faster, and stronger, too? Do he and I both main the first member of the DK Crew?**

 **(Just kidding. I main Corrin/Kamui. DK was my main in 64 and Melee though.)**

 **This AN is officially more than a quarter of the update's length. Holy fuck.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"There is no emotion." The first voice intoned. Their hearts were empty. They lived in shadow.

"There is no fear." The second voice declared. They would not waver. They were the silent blade.

"There is no disturbance." The third voice spoke. They would leave no markng. They would pass, as the new moon's light on calm waters.

"There is only duty." The fourth voice promised. Duty...heavier than the mountains.

"There is only death." The first voice spoke once more. Death...lighter than any feather.

Itachi's crows and ravens, and Kakashi's dogs, saw Jiraiya and Tsunade approaching. Before the Hyuuga could see them coming with the Byakugan, they were known.

"Born from a grave."

"Return to the grave."

"Born from a grave."

"Return to the grave."

For Itachi, Yamato, and Yugao, it made no difference who stood before them. They would act when they were told to act, and strike when they were told to strike. Together with their captain, they could take down any foe. Three blades to die, and they stood by his side; the fierce, the black, and the wicked were their names.

Come what may, they would hold.

"We're going to encircle them." Kakashi said. "They're a larger force, but numbers work against them in enclosed spaces...this is the last battle. Count on that."

The lazy Jounin had traded out his flak vest for older, more traditional armor, reminiscent of the Daimyo and their shogunate. It was a hybrid between that and the regular Anbu breastplate, vambraces and greaves. Layered with bands of metal on the inside of the armor, it was heavy enough to stop almost any handheld weapon, and the bladed ridges of his vambraces meant that his punches were just as deadly on their return trip.

Now, as to how he'd found the time to do that while evacuating a burning building...that was another question entirely.

 _Horkew Kamuy_ stood proudly, a baleful howl promising harm to those who challenged it. As the minutes dragged on, he refused to allow his impatience to show.

Then, finally, they came into view.

"Stay out of the fighting, Hiashi." Kakashi said. "You have two daughters who need you."

"I could hardly call myself a clan head if I refused to risk my life alongside my kinsmen." Hiashi retorted. "I do not wish to kill, but...controlling that urge will be difficult."

After Hizashi's death, the elder twin had hardened his heart toward everyone. Though he regretted it, Hinata had borne the brunt of that coldness; she was a gentle soul, and reminded him far too much of her mother. In that regard, he was glad that his daughter wasn't here to witness him. It meant that he could fight without worry.

It meant that he could fight like a man who wanted to die.

As his Byakugan came to life, his pale grimace became determined.

"You are within the boundaries of my eight triagrams." There was no escape from the omniscient eyes of a Hyuuga, the gift given to them by the favor of Tiid, the dead god who had watched all things from all places.

Neji was an incredible talent, able to recreate techniques that he had never been taught as a member of the Branch House. He was _not,_ however, the most skilled practitioner in _Jyuken_ combat.

It was a shame that the boy wasn't here to learn that fact for himself.

* * *

The Rookie Twelve, and their growing motley crew, had taken turns practicing in one of Kirigakure's training grounds. Haku and Chojuro were with them; the Chunin and would-be member of the Seven Swordsmen had increased the number of their group by one more, and given them a bit more of a legitimate feeling around Kiri.

He also couldn't, for the life of him, beat Tenten in a Kenjutsu match.

"It's not your fault." She consoled him. "Kenjutsu is pretty much everything I know. If there's a weapon, I can use it. If it needs to be made, I can make it. Weapons are almost all I have."

"Yeah, but at this rate, you're more likely to be a member of the Swordsmen than I am."

"Hey, cheer up!" Kiba said, clapping him on the back hard enough that Chojuro nearly fell to the ground. "If it bugs you that much, just get stronger. Like, Tenten, you said that weapons were _almost_ all you had...so what else is there?"

"Deception." The bun-haired teen winked coyly.

"I wonder what's going on, back home?" Sakura asked.

Shikamaru looked at Sai and Tayuya, and the redhead moved her head away from his gaze. Their self-appointed leader, however, had his head buried in a book. _How to Get_ _Friends, For Dummies, Vol. II._

That was a new one.

"War." Oboro said.

Rei and Kouga were off to the side, facing off against Sasuke and Neji. Despite their differences in age and height, the twins weren't doing poorly; their chakra-summoned weapons were both incredibly close-range, practically feeding off of Neji's _Jyuken,_ and Sasuke couldn't find time to break away and perform any of his wider-scale Ninjutsu. At the Uzumaki matron's words, they paused.

"Before we left Konoha, there was a civil war threatening to explode into the streets. Naruto's capture would have been the breaking point for many of Konoha's shinobi, given her apparent lifestyle and long years of AWOL status. If it had been any other ninja, the consequences might not have been so severe, since we're expected to die in the field some time in our late teens or early twenties...on average. But Naruto is special, given his status in regard to the village. Losing a Jinchuriki on a poorly-thought-out mission order, and sending so many other high-profile ninja with him who could have ended in that position, was political suicide. Your departure could easily have been the final straw."

"What? No, we would know about it!" Ino exclaimed.

"No. It adds up, a little too well. What I want to know is why you two..." Shikamaru's gaze didn't leave Tayuya as he spoke, though his statement included Sai. "Didn't say a word about it. You knew, and didn't tell us. On purpose."

"We're safer here." Sai replied, not looking up from his book. "If we were still in Konoha, it would be expected of us to choose sides and fight for them. There's no guarantee that we would all survive."

"So it's true?" Sasuke asked.

"The Hokage petitioned Suna, Kumo, and Kiri for aid." Temari said. "Unless the Raikage sent her some troops, nobody responded. Either he has no faith in her, or they don't care about the outcome."

"And Gaara?" Tayuya gave her former enemy a pointed look.

"He cares more about Naruto. Why aren't we on the move already?" Kankuro asked. "I thought the whole plan was, 'destroy Orochimaru's bases and reclaim Naruto.' Did I miss something?"

"No, we've stayed in one place for too long. Kumo should be next, if I'm remembering the plan correctly." Neji offered.

"Lee, don't be alarmed, but you have a big fan in Kumo." Tayuya smiled...on the outside.

On the inside, she was mortified at the possibility of Rock Lee and Kirabi collaborating. Though she'd never had the misfortune to experience it herself, Neji and Tenten had told her of Lee's mysterious power to evoke Genjutsu when inspired by his sensei. As an illusionist herself, Tayuya found that plausible, but the idea of a boy with no chakra possessing the capability to create a Genjutsu that could be physically interacted with?

She hoped it wasn't true. If it was, then Konoha's Green Beast would be unstoppable if he ever managed to activate the ability during battle.

"Fine...we'll leave tomorrow." Tayuya said. "We won't stay in Kumo for longer than a week, though...and we can always ask for their help in destroying the two major bases in Kaminari no Kuni."

"We'll need Zabuza-sama to sail us there." Haku said. "Unless you would rather swim."

"Swimming would probably be faster." Shikamaru said. "Can Ao, or anyone else, do it instead?"

* * *

Just as Kakashi was about to land the killing blow on Akimichi Chouza, a hand caught his arm. It was Gai, and the Taijutsu master had a displeased look on his face.

"Please, my eternal rival...show mercy."

Kakashi understood. Chouza had been Gai's Jounin-sensei, and having lost his own, Kakashi knew what it was like to watch his teacher die in front of him. So, wheeling around, his kunai instead plunged through the face of a Chunin who'd been attempting to kill them both.

Blood must always be answered with blood. Kindness must always be repaid with kindness. Gai was now in Kakashi's debt, and all debts must be repaid. Chouza retreated from the battle quickly, the _shunshin_ almost impossibly fast for a man his size.

Then, in the not-so-distant distance, he heard Jiraiya call out the _Odama_ _Rasengan_ before slamming it into Hiashi's _Kaiten._

It was with no small amount of horror that many of the assembled Hyuuga watched the larger maelstrom-ball eat straight through the nigh-impenetrable dome of chakra, digging into their patriarch's gut. Though he managed to slip away before it managed a gruesome bisection, Hiashi's hand was all that kept his intestines from falling out from his body.

"Even a caged bird can fly freely in its dreams." Hiashi said. "The dream is nearly over."

 _Join me, brother._ He called out, across the void, to Hizashi's spirit. _Join me, on this final flight._

"These eyes see everything. The only thing my sight cannot touch is eternity, but even then...I can still see your fate."

His hand moved away from his gut, inner organs spilling out before he severed them with a blade of chakra. Hyuuga Hiashi had sealed his fate; he was a dead man. There was no medic in the world who could sanitize and surgically re-attach his lost body parts, and even if they could...he had lived long enough, he thought. There had been so much, too much, death in his life.

His brother. His wife. His parents. He'd very nearly lost Hinata and Neji, as well. Now, however, it was finally his turn to pass on.

"What am I, but a leaf upon the wind?" He asked.

Two lion-heads of chakra appeared ahead of his hands, the _Shishi Kougake._ With no further warning, Hiashi moved, and Jiraiya wasn't able to stop the constructs from biting into his back.

"Two palms."

Twice, Hiashi struck. This was the beginning of the end, for both of them.

"Four palms."

Jiraiya, standing still, began to draw upon natural energy to strengthen his body...but as his Tenketsu closed, he found that collecting it was all that he could do; he was forced to stop the process, unless he wanted to risk suicide by drawing too much of it into his body.

"Eight palms."

Three Anbu rushed Hiashi, attempting to distract him, but Yugao and Yamato stopped two of them. Kakashi dashed forward, cutting down the third before he got within two paces of the Hyuuga head's still-living corpse.

"Sixteen palms."

Even with his toughened body, Jiraiya couldn't stop the damage to his organs that the _Jyuken's_ strikes caused. His liver, both of his lungs, and even his vocal chords, had stopped working. There could be no escape.

"Thirty-two palms."

Hiashi's strike speed intensified.

"Sixty-four palms."

Jiraiya's hand- and foot-based tenketsu were closed, rendering Jiraiya incapable of anything but Taijutsu. The large majority of ninja, to which Jiraiya was no exception, were only able to expel chakra from their extremities; all Hyuuga were capable of utilizing their full number of tenketsu, as well as a handful of other ninja across the world, and practitioners of the _Hachimon_ formation.

"One hundred and twenty-eight palms."

As he landed the final blows to Jiraiya's tenketsu-riddled organs, he avoided striking the heart; out of chakra, out of breath, out of time...it was Hiashi's dying wish that the, "gallant," Jiraiya would suffer before the internal damage killed him.

It _would_ kill him. The truth could not hide from the Byakugan.

Before he could hit the ground, Tsunade arrived after wading through the battle, delivering a blow to Hiashi's head that was powerful enough to decapitate him roughly.

"Jiraiya!" She yelled.

Muted from the blows to his throat, Jiraiya just shook his head. Whether that was supposed to be a sign to not bother saving him, or an attempt to make her believe he was fine...it didn't work, and the Godaime Hokage was in stark disbelief.

 _Nothing_ could kill Jiraiya. He had faced hundreds of ninja, thousands of lethal circumstances, but he'd always survived. It had been Jiraiya who saved her, and Orochimaru, when a mountain had been dropped on them. It had been Jiraiya who kept them in the fight against Hanzo. Always, when Orochimaru's speed and Tsunade's medical prowess weren't enough to salvage a situation, Jiraiya's seals and raw power had pulled them to the finish line.

The sound of chirping birds, behind her, meant that she wouldn't be able to witness his final moments. He pulled out a pen and notebook, though blood spattered the unwritten pages after a fit of chakra-silenced coughing. Carefully, he began to write.

* * *

"And here we are." Tobi wanted to laugh from behind his mask. "Maya...no. Izumi. is this how you repay me?"

The drop of her name was no revelation; all three of them knew. There was no point in pretending, alone as they were.

"You gave me life when I had accepted death." The last female Uchiha replied. "You robbed me of my happy ending, and forced me to stay in this twisted, broken world."

"It was nothing but a dream, girl. Whether pleasant or a nightmare, all dreams have to end eventually. I want to change that, though. I want to make this world, this _life,_ a never-ending dream where all wishes can come true."

A mass of crows came together, along with two larger ravens, and they coalesced into the shape of Itachi.

"It ends, here." The stoic would-be clan head said determinedly. "The old way. The crimes of a family member must be dealt with by the family. You are Uchiha, and we will stop you."

"No more boasting, then." Tobi demanded. "Let's settle this."

With Izumi on Itachi's side, the _Kamui_ would be pointless. Itachi, despite the fact that he was approaching blindness, had a terrifyingly near-prescient sixth sense that had kept him alive for so long. The instincts that had raised a child, strong enough to fight in the last days of the Third Great War, had remained ingrained in Itachi's mind; death before dishonor. Protect and serve the village above all else. Complete the mission, regardless of consequence to yourself or others.

Itachi was the greatest ninja the Uchiha clan had raised since the founding of Konoha. With his supreme stealth, unerring accuracy, a wide array of elemental techniques, and his specialization in Genjutsu, his talents had been great enough that he'd been hailed as the second coming of Madara. Itachi disagreed; he did not have the traitorous clan head's ambition, his chakra supply, or his malefic will.

That wasn't to say that he didn't revel in the heat of battle.

The two men clashed, kunai biting into one another before they separated and began strings of hand-seals. Tobi's _Goukyaku_ collided with Itachi's _Housenka,_ though Itachi had hidden shuriken inside of his flames; two of the six tagged Tobi in the left arm, though they were thin scratches at best.

Itachi didn't show any emotion at having drawn first blood. In the world of ninja, far too much could change in a split second, and it didn't matter who got the first hit.

All that mattered was the last one standing.

Tobi had some difficulty battling both of his younger clansmen at once, but thirty years of life had taught the ghost of a man how to sidestep death and sneak away. He was like a wraith, nearly untouchable. Despite the poison coursing through his body, courtesy of Izumi's special claw-bladed kunai, he kept himself on even footing with the pair.

Itachi was a born assassin, and over time, more shallow cuts began to appear across Tobi's body. His death didn't neet to come all at once. Skeletal armor coated him, the _Susano'o_ his ultimate defense. Equipped with the _Yata Kagam_ i and the _Totsuka no Ken,_ his defense was virtually unbreakable. Fortunately for himself, though, Tobi was adept at avoiding the ethereal sword.

He didn't know how long he could hold out, but his stamina was far from unlimited. None of the three Uchiha were endurance fighters, as all of them were specialized for assassination. Itachi held the advantage in speed, and Tobi in strength. Maya's ability to draw Itachi into the fade-world of the _Kamui_ rendered useless all of Tobi's attempts to utilize the technique defensively. If he could just kill her...

No. He had brought her back from the edge of death itself, for a specific reason. He couldn't recall why, but...she reminded him of something. Someone. With her brown hair and dark eyes, despite knowing that she would never reciprocate, he had offered himself to her.

He should have considered the depth of her bond with Itachi.

Tainted blood ran its course through his body, and Tobi wondered how long he could continue to match the pair before his eye.


	48. An Ode to Tobi, the Good Boy

**I'm here, I'm here...for some reason. Thankfully, I don't have work today, so this 4:30 AM bedtime is...decent. Not good, but whatever.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. Wondering Knight: Eh, you're probably right. Like I said in last chapter's AN, I bit off more than I could chew because I wanted to make sure that certain characters weren't in a position to die. Still, that's coming to an end pretty soon. Then, on to bigger and better things...I suppose.**

 **2\. Tsukoblue: Was it? I dropped so many hints early on that I worried it wouldn't be surprising to anyone when I finally used her name, but it's been almost 30 chapters since then, so I guess it worked out.**

 **3\. OneLunchMan: Jiraiya honestly deserves better, but as Biggie Smalls once wrote it, "Somebody's Got To Die." That, and I feel that his character serves much better as a torch-giver for Naruto to take up the search for peace from. After all, if Jiraiya is still alive to chase after his dream, what use is there in having Naruto fulfill it?**

 **Hiashi always struck me as the man who was envious of his brother for having the courage and strength to accept his destiny. So in his final moments, when he asks for Hizashi to join him, it's more like he's trying to draw upon that same courage; if he'd bandaged himself up and gotten some emergency medical treatment, he probably could have survived.**

 **It's the job of the young to take up where the old left off, and make things better. It's the job of the old to entrust the future to the young, and hope for a brighter future.**

 **4\. Guest: Except Kakashi isn't responsible for Jiraiya's death, and Naruto already knew about Kakashi's feelings regarding Tsunade's regency. After all, it was Jiraiya who threw the first punch, and Hiashi was the one who offered the motion of no confidence. Unless you're trying to say that Kakashi is passively responsible due to preventing Hiashi from being stopped? That's valid.**

 **5\. tastybigsexy: Glad you liked it! We're approaching an end to this facet of the arc, as the hunt for Naruto will continue for another chapter or two, so I was trying to pack everything up nicely for the civil war's final chapter.**

 **6\. Drake Vallion: They aren't the only deaths, there's some more to come. Three in this chapter, as a matter of fact. However, I think you've overestimated Naruto's ability to rise; he's certainly hit rock bottom, but he's brought his shovel and he is ready to dig.**

 **7\. RedCide47: Yeah, it's not always fun to pit characters who otherwise love and defend one another, against each other. However, certain personal things like that are expected to be put aside in war-time...blood for the blood god, as the saying goes.**

 **8\. SaKreD4LIFE: Oh, yeah, life's gonna fuckin' suck. And thanks for that; I definitely feel like I've tried very hard to make Orochimaru out to be more of a person than what he was in canon, which seemed to be, "my desire to learn all Ninjutsu in the world made me start experimenting with sealing techniques on live humans while I cultivated a sadistic side to my personality."**

 **That's not a humanized antagonist. That's a strawman.**

 **9\. Noahendless: Seek or not, ye shall find, and as the blackened blood boils over between thin gaps in the marble tomb...then shall you get your answer from it, the Watcher in the Dark, the Blind Ape of Truth, who is faceless and yet known to all. The dead will lead to the living, and the living to the dead, for only after you expend your fire will the world continue turn.**

 **The Crawling Chaos will consume you lest I, your potion-seller, give up to you my strongest potions.**

 **Also, to that anon who reported me for "writing child molestation:" Normally, I'd ask where that happened in this fic (or any other) but I know that's something I've never done, so I'm leaving this message to let you know that I deleted your review and I'm laughing at you without going behind your back. I mean, fuck, if you're gonna criticize me for something...make sure it's something I've actually done. Otherwise, you just make an ass of yourself.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"It's time." Kakashi said, the _Chidori_ in his hands. "You or me, Tsunade. We're ending this war."

Tsunade bit back tears as she wheeled around, her face contorted in pain.

"Why...why did it have to be him?"

"Because time goes on. Nobody can know what happens in the future, but the duty of a ninja is to fight to ensure that their loved ones can have a future that's good to them. Up until our last breaths, even before our loyalty to our villages, that is the job of all shinobi."

Jiraiya continued writing, though his motions were slow and weak. His life was fading.

"Even now," Kakashi spoke again, "he wants to make sure one last message is passed on. He's still dreaming of a future for at least one other person. So...tell me. Do you feel the same? Can you fight to protect the future you dream of?"

Tsunade hung her head.

"No."

She'd lost everything. The trust of her people, in the village of Konoha. Her brother, Nawaki. Her lover, Dan. Her firstborn son, Minato. Her second son, "Sai." Her grandson, Naruto. And now, she was losing Jiraiya as well.

"I can't bring them back." Kakashi sighed. "But I can take you to them."

She had nothing left.

"Do it, Kakashi, if you believe in that future so much." She gave a short laugh. "You, Jiraiya, Orochimaru...even Naruto. All you men, you keep your eyes pointed forward as you think of the future. What about all those people who struggle with the past, who can hardly live in the present? My heart died with my little brother. My life ended with Dan's. I know that all Jiraiya ever wanted was to help me, to get me to move forward, but...I'm chained down by the past. I can't reach the future he dreamed of."

Jiraiya looked up, slightly miffed at already having been written off, but his organs were shutting down individually. The lungs were the last ones left that Hiashi had touched, and they would be followed by the heart, and then the brain.

He kept writing, but his eyes never left Tsunade.

"Alright then." Kakashi bowed his head for a moment before coming back up. "You know, I just realized it, but now I'll have used this technique against all three of the Sannin, and I'll live to tell about it. Am I a distant cousin of Hanzo?"

His joke fell flat, but it was true nonetheless. Just as very few ninja had truly been on par with _Sanshouo no Hanzo,_ the leader of Amegakure prior to his death some time after the end of the Third Great War, the list of ninja who'd faced all three Sannin was incredibly small.

"Close your eyes. Go to sleep." Kakashi said. "Make your way to the world of dreams."

Kakashi ran forward, a thousand birds screaming in his right ear as he prepared to commit regicide. Unbidden, he thought back to Team Seven's first C-ranked mission: the fiasco that was Nami no Kuni. He remembered it...differently, though. Gato had arrived before he'd even summoned his hounds, let alone given them time to latch on to Zabuza and immobilize him. He'd never charged Zabuza with the _Chidori._

So what he was remembering...hadn't happened. Even so, Kakashi knew what came next: Haku, breaking away from Naruto just before the blond could kill him, chose to die defending his master. Then Gato had arrived, after tragedy could have been avoided. Understanding the gift he'd been given, of the past-that-was-not, the master of a thousand arts knew how to prevent what would happen next.

Thanks to his Sharingan, as a black-robed blur moved to stand between Kakashi and his target, he had the necessary reaction time.

At the last second, Kakashi jumped. Performing an acrobatic roll in midair, he left Shizune standing in front of Tsunade with her arms wide open; the younger medic had intended to be a sacrifice, dying to protect the woman she'd devoted her life to. As Kakashi exited the roll, his arm striking out to pierce through Tsunade's heart, he couldn't help feeling disappointed for Shizune.

So it was, that as Jiraiya died, he was given the knowledge that at least _one_ student hadn't gone before him. He had put his pen down, flicking the notebook to Kakashi's feet, and craned his head to look up to the sky. It was the same sky he had been born under, the same sky he had killed under. Some things could not, would not, ever change.

 _"You will find the promised child._ _The child born on a battlefield, the killer of shade whose light of truth will conquer across all times and places, lest the world crumble. In the image of his father, he will end your quest, and in the darkness he will find peace...lest he falter. Should you fail, the world will be plunged into everlasting night, the sight of which shall be lost to him. The maelstrom will survive, no matter what cost it must incur, be it the warmth of family or the future of the world."_

Those were the words given to Jiraiya by the Elder One, the toad who had been old before the gods had died. He had taken a sip from the God-Emperor's life-water as it ran across the desert sands, and had gained some of the dead god's power of foresight. Merely a youngling, the Kyuubi hadn't seen fit to kill him for his presence...and ever after, his gift had been used to aid mankind.

Jiraiya wanted to go back to Kaminari no Kuni. He wanted to go back to his parents, and the grave-marker that he'd made them. Their bodies weren't there, they'd been gone after the jutsu he'd sworn off forever...but, he supposed, it was just as nice for his life to end beside Tsunade's body. For Jiraiya, there was no grief, there was no misery; there was only the hope that Naruto, without anyone left who felt the need to guide him, would find his way to the era of peace that Jiraiya had dreamed of for so many years.

As the almighty, larger-than-life Arashi Jiraiya lost the light in his eyes, Kakashi took up the notebook which he'd so carefully written in during his life's final moments. Seeing that the first word was a name, _Naruto,_ he closed the pages and pocketed the book.

Shizune screamed in horror as her mentor crumpled to the ground, a smile on Tsunade's pale face despite the gaping electrical wound in her back. She twisted as she fell, landing atop her long-time teammate. Their corpses embraced, and it was the warmest that they'd been to one another in far too long.

Konoha's civil war was, at long last...over.

* * *

"You can't keep dodging forever, Obito." Itachi said. "I still have plenty of chakra."

Each time Tobi tried to avoid a swing from the _Totsuka no Ken,_ Izumi was there, in the _Kamui's_ dimension. Each sting from her blade brought fresh poison to his blood, which the spores from Zetsu weren't entirely adept at picking up.

Tobi's back was fresh against the wall, and without his second eye, he had nothing to match Itachi's invincible _Susano'o._ When did he have the time to train this extensively? Tobi had watched over him for his entire life, even before the massacre and Itachi's flight from Konoha. More precisely, Izumi had always been the one watching over him.

That was the problem, then. He'd underestimated, from the very beginning, her desire for revenge against the man who killed her. He'd expected her to mold into his will, in that liminal space between the worlds of the living and the dead. He'd expected her to rage, to hurt, to expel her anguished violence toward the one who was responsible.

Yet, still, she loved Itachi. She had always loved Itachi, and only ever Itachi...just like Rin's eyes were on Kakashi, never Obito. He had given her the gift of the Mangekyou, with the _Kamui's_ dimension-travelling ability in her right eye and the _Amaterasu_ in her left. Her _Susano'o_ in its armored form, while not quite in the order of Itachi's magnitude, was still a force to be reckoned with.

There was nowhere to run or hide, and Tobi was both outmatched and overpowered. Silently, he cursed his younger self's generosity; had it not been for Kakashi, taking his Sharingan, he'd be on even footing with his enemies.

He tried to call forth his White Zetsu clones, but the _Amaterasu's_ holy fire burned them to cinders long before they could become useful.

"Did you think that could work?" Itachi mocked him. "I knew it was you who incited the Uchiha to rebellion. My entire life, from my graduation until now, has been devoted to killing you. First, it was to stop you from destroying our clan..."

"You did a better job of that than I ever could have." Tobi smirked from behind his mask, feeling the last of the poison inside of him run its course.

"After I left this village, it was to keep you in check. But now?" Itachi's eyes widened from the madness associated with their clan, and Tobi was immediately on guard.

"Now, it's for fun." Tobi wheeled around, a kunai cutting through the speaker behind him, but Itachi's clone erupted into a flock of crows.

"Amuse me, Obito, black sheep of the Uchiha! Entertain me!" He called out, motioning for Izumi to stay back.

The great gunbai of an elder age was unsealed into Itachi's hand, the battle-fan's edge serrated and made of chakra-conductive metal. Itachi's _Goukyaku_ came to life, and with one swing, a ball of flame too large to dodge was barreling down on Tobi. He barreled through it, rolling to put out the flames on his clothing, and the sight before him was enough to fill him with dread.

Itachi ran forward, and between his robe, his armor, and the gunbai, he gave an uncanny sort of double-vision with the image of Madara behind him. Before he could react, the bladed fan cut deeply into his chest, and Tobi felt nine of his ribs break. Before he could get away, Itachi had completed the swing and grabbed Tobi with his off hand.

A sick grin made its way to Itachi's face as that same hand deftly came up, a chakra-bladed hand cutting through the bottom of his enemy's mouth before wrapping around the teeth and chin. One foot keeping Tobi steady, Itachi _pulled._ First the rogue Uchiha's jaw was dislocated, and then it broke, but Itachi put more force into his motion. When blood sprayed, as his muscles were torn apart, Tobi fell back; his jaw was still in Itachi's hand. Without mercy, the bones were lit aflame, and Itachi's blood-stained face didn't lose its unnatural smile.

"I am the heir to the gods we worshipped, one and all." The Kinslayer intoned. "Bleed, for your life is the sacrament to my glory as their avatar...and rejoice, as you find salvation."

The _Totsuka_ came down as Itachi's _Susano'o_ swung, and Tobi had neither the presence of mind or the capability to avoid it.

"My lord..." Tobi gasped out, the ethereal sword's unbreakable Genjutsu taking hold. "...did I serve you well, Madara-sama?"

He sank to his knees, mind breaking as it failed to escape the illusion. Allowing himself to be taken into that world, Uchiha Obito passed away.

"Be at peace, brother." Itachi said, coming down from his battle-high. "Izumi...I need to go to Tsunade. Will you take me there?"

"Of course, dear." Her mask fell, for the final time, as she kissed Itachi's bloody face.

"I...I can't see." Itachi admitted as his lover took hold of his arm.

"And what if she's dead?"

"Then I can force my hand. The stone says that unity with the Senju will produce the Rinnegan, but no Uchiha that I know of managed to do so."

So, unless the ancient stone of the Uchiha was lying, the secret was to mix a Senju's chakra in the Sharingan. Walking with uncertainty, Itachi wasn't sure whether or not he wanted the power it would give him, but his blood sang at the chance to fulfill the true Uchiha destiny.

* * *

"She's dead, Itachi. I don't see how-"

"Did she release her seal?" He asked.

"No, but I hardly see..." Kakashi began, but trailed off when he saw that Itachi was about to interrupt him again.

Itachi pressed two fingers to Tsunade's forehead, Izumi having directed his hand to the diamond that denoted her _Byakugou no Fuin._ As Itachi triggered the seal, he felt foreign chakra crawl up his arm. Shifting it, he drained the entire seal, and directed all of Tsunade's chakra to his eyes.

The pain started as nothing but a pinprick sensation, but slowly spread until his eyes felt like they were being set on fire and doused with acid. A low groan escaped his mouth, surprising those who'd known him for the years he'd been in Konoha; Itachi wasn't the type of ninja to show that something was painful. That meant, whatever he was doing, it would have been enough to floor most others.

"Itachi-kun, are you okay?"

"I'm fine...agh!" He forced more chakra to his eyes, though they were hidden from public sight by the blue and green chakras they emitted.

This was, physically, the most painful thing he'd ever been through in his life. Blood dripped down from his sightless eyes, and then the pain began to go away. Itachi's eyelids came down, and when he opened them again, his sight was restored. The chakra faded from them, and Itachi offered mental thanks to the deceased Hokage for her contribution to his wellbeing.

Nine tomoe spun evenly across three rings in each of Itachi's newly-awakened Rinnegan, a flat lilac replacing the iridescent red of the Sharingan.

"That'll be fun to explain to Pein-sama." Izumi giggled.

Her mood was light, as ever, despite the situation she'd found herself in. Even after so much death, she had the only reason she needed to be happy: Itachi was with her, and he was safe. With him by her side, and with her by his, there was nothing that couldn't be done. Now, finally, she didn't have to pretend to follow anyone's orders again. She was free, and her life was her own.

How ironic, to love the one who'd killed her. Sasuke might have been the Spirit of Fire, the protector of the Uchiha destiny, but Itachi was the soul of the clan, and she was the one in whom his conscience laid.

Itachi's sight was better than it had been since before he'd first activated the Mangekyou, almost two decades ago, as he'd accompanied Uchiha Shisui and another team on their mission in Kiri during the Third Great War. He'd only been four years old at the time, but his eyes were strong, and his jutsu were stronger. Shisui's death had changed Itachi's outlook on the life and purpose of a ninja. The eye which he'd been entrusted with had served him well, the _Kotoamatsukami_ allowing him to infiltrate the Akatsuki and plot the slow takedown of its genuine criminal members.

Hidan was gone. Obito was gone. Orochimaru would be gone when Pein finally made a move, and struck him down with a righteous hand of god. Kakuzu and Zetsu would be the hardest to kill, of those agents remaining, but that measuring stick was a relative one; the members of the Akatsuki, despite its inherent weaknesses and its members' inability to truly cooperate, was an organization built upon the raw power of ten S-ranked criminals who were _more_ than legendary.

Pein and Konan were its founders, and while Konan had been a rebel of Ame...Pein had single-handedly killed _Sanshouo no Hanzo,_ widely considered by many to be the strongest ninja of his generation. Kakuzu, if he was to be believed, had assassinated the Shodaime Hokage and been imprisoned for his treasonous act before breaking out and killing most of Taki's upper management. Kisame had been a member of Kirigakure's Seven Swordsmen. Sasori had murdered the Sandaime Kazekage and countless others. Deidara was an arsonist, and had blown half of a mountain up over Iwa prior to going rogue.

The Tsuchikage had stopped it from doing any damage, but to hear the blond bomber tell his story, it was the _principle_ of the thing.

Zetsu...Itachi had absolutely no idea what Zetsu's deal was. Only that he was a cannibalistic half-plant who seemed to be in the Akatsuki for little more than shits and giggles. However, thanks to Obito's use of them in their battle, Itachi was aware that Zetsu could clone itself.

That would make it a long, drawn-out battle. The kind Itachi hated most.

With the Rinnegan, however, Itachi felt that his chakra reserves had taken a massive spike upward in their capacity. Now, he had the chakra levels that would be necessary to compete in fights against the rest of the Akatsuki, and the world.

If Pein was to be the god of rain, then Itachi would be the god of the sky.


	49. Half Of This Chapter Is Review Responses

**Wordcount is a little short, and this AN is _easily_ gonna make up the difference. Last chapter was the most reviled (though also the most-reviwed) in this fic's two-month run...which, I won't lie, I'm laughing at. A little bit. I won't deny that I didn't see it coming, though.**

 **On the other hand, if I lost followers/favorites for it, I certainly gained a lot back, enough that I have more than I did beforehand.**

 **Review response time! (Oh boy...given the length of some of these responses, I'm going to use line breaks to separate them.)**

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 **1\. Tsukoblue:**

 **The civil war is over, but its repercussions are not. Ever hear that expression about cutting off the head of the snake? In the same way that Kiri's civil war ended with Yagura's death, Konoha's ends with Tsunade's; on the other hand, if Kakashi had been killed as well, it would have continued in the form of Danzo/Ne vs Tsunade/Konoha.**

 **I don't know that he'd take Jiraiya's side, but Tsunade would be more definite. Naruto and Jiraiya have a more complicated relationship in this fic, and while Naruto respects Jiraiya as a teacher, he also holds some anger inside of him for the lies that were told to him (or truths that were hidden from him) in the past. And, while the revelation of Tsunade being his paternal grandmother was split-second by Orochimaru, Naruto already knew they were related because Tsunade is 25% Uzumaki.**

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 **2\. polarbear257:**

 **I'm going to answer the second part of your review, since so many people jumped on the bandwagon with the first section.**

 **This Naruto isn't god-like. I don't know where you got that assumption from. The reason he managed to beat Yagura was because of the Kyuubi's direct influence, not passive control over its chakra. In this fic, Naruto has been shown to be proficient in Kenjutsu, Ninjutsu, and Fuinjutsu. His Kenjutsu is strong enough to rival Kirabi's, though Yagura was tag-teaming with him, and Kirabi wasn't going full-tilt. Kurama used Naruto as a medium to call down the meteor and raise up the mountain that forced the Sanbi to dispel. Besides that, however, Naruto's been shown using multiple elemental releases. His sealing capabilities, thanks to his lineage, are enough that he could remove the Aiganchou/Caged Bird Seal from Neji and recreate the effects of the _Bansho Ten'in_ without even having seen it.**

 **But he wasn't strong enough to beat Yagura, particularly due to the use of Katon techniques. His fight against Itachi wasn't one where Itachi was aiming to kill, or else Naruto would be dead; even in canon, Itachi was always leaps and bounds ahead of Naruto. He wasn't able to effectively trap and kill Orochimaru. Do you know why?**

 **Naruto's dumb as a brick. He's a moron. A nimrod. He fully admits it, too. And so, when he's presented with a frustrating situation like he was against Yagura, he tries the same trick again, hoping that it'll work the second time around. It doesn't, and if not for Jiraiya's interference, Tayuya would have died because of Naruto's stupidity.**

 **And then, when multiple people aren't having an effect on Orochimaru, instead of thinking, "they need to evacuate so that I can use my full power," he says, "they need to evacuate because he's wearing them down and their safety is more important." Then, prioritizing their safety over his own, he obliterates the base rather than completely cut loose and slaughter Orochimaru. Because, as it was said back in that chapter, that's what _should_ have happened...but Naruto is an idiot.**

 **His promotions were gained through strength on the battlefield, not tactical capability. You don't have to be smart to throw a stronger punch than your opponent.** **Just because I haven't been overt in stating that doesn't mean it shouldn't be obvious. Actions speak louder than words.**

* * *

 **3\. SingleSoul:**

 **I mean, I've put it in every single AN, man. This thing's a trainwreck, plain and simple. I started with no idea of where I was going, and I _continue_ to have no idea where I'm going. There's very thin, wispy tendrils of overarching plot that are blown away like smoke because I make it up as I go along. I try to stay true to what's been written in this fic already, but as Bon Scott once sang, "ain't it a shame to be shot down in flames?"**

* * *

 **4\. Wondering Knight:**

 **Well, truth be told, it's a product of boredom, and an unwillingness to just...skip right to the point where Naruto's found. I mean, yes, we're still technically in the three year timeskip between Part 1 and Shippuden, but...eh, whatever. Tsunade's death was part-and-parcel with Jiraiya's, because of the kind of hopelessness it inspired; Kakashi didn't have to kill her, she could easily have surrendered. However, he knows about Naruto's lineage. He knows that not only did Tsunade abandon her son, Minato, Kakashi's sensei...but her grandson, Naruto, as well.**

 **And while it's true, Kakashi's _nindo_ is about rule-breakers and those who abandon their comrades, and he certainly did kill his Kage, there's a definite animosity against her in his mind. He grew up without a mother, and his father committed suicide when the village turned against him for saving his comrades' lives. He regained his faith in bonds of friendship just before Obito (and later, Rin,) died. Namikaze Minato grew up an orphan, because his mother was too afraid to face a future without her lover to help her raise their bastard child. Uzumaki Naruto grew up an orphan because Tsunade, rather than attempt to right the wrongs she made with Minato, ran away _again._ In the same way that he blames Jiraiya for Minato's death, since Jiraiya could have performed the _Shiki Fuin_ instead, Kakashi blames Tsunade for Naruto's childhood on the streets of Konoha's slums.**

 **Maybe I shouldn't have written the civil war, and instead focused purely on the Rookie Twelve (and more) on their journey to rescue Naruto. But a stage had to be set, and as wounded as it is...Konoha's populace needs someone who wasn't involved in the war, someone who's strong and has the village's interests at heart, someone popular enough that their selection as Hokage comes without surprise. That list comes down to two people:**

 **Itachi and Naruto.**

 **Danzo, however, may not be willing to wait for Naruto's return...**

* * *

 **5\. SaKreD4LIFE:**

 **Yeah, they were White Zetsu clones/spores. Sorry I didn't clarify, but I didn't think it would need clarification. That having been said, however, if, "neutralizing poison," is a skill that's only in Black Zetsu's repertoire, then you have my apologies.**

 **Nagato may have the Rikudo Pein, but White Zetsu has unlimited lives. I think White Zetsu would win purely through weight of numbers.**

* * *

 **6\. Drake Vallion:**

 **Orochimaru finds out next chapter. I wonder what effect it'll have? And...yeah. Jiraiya's death was a direct callback to when he attacked Hiashi and sparked the civil war to begin with. Though, as for why the _Rasengan_ had no effect against the _Kaiten,_ but the _Cho Odama Rasengan_ did? Up for discussion.**

 **Sorry to disappoint, but Zabuza won't be singing in this chapter. Maybe in an omake, or at some point in the future.**

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 **7\. Fritter:**

 **That was actually intentional and, along with the gunbai, intended to draw a parallel with Madara. Did you finish the series? Madara would just talk, and talk, and talk...I mean, sure, he summoned a meteor and became the Jubi Jinchuriki and all, but if there was an age-swap and Naruto's generation founded Konoha while Madara and Hashirama were the main characters of the story (there's an idea for a fic, huh?) then I guarantee you he'd be nicknamed something like Uchiha "Motor Mouth" Madara.**

* * *

 **8\. Ludicrous (Guest):**

 **Tsunade, capable of crushing Kakashi? Don't fuck with me, man. That's almost laughable enough to disregard the rest of your review. She's strong, sure, but Kakashi has speed for _days,_ and the Sharingan's predictive ability would keep him dodging blows until Tsunade ran out of strength. Then she gets merc'd by a kunai, or a _Chidori,_ or a _Rasengan,_ or any other jutsu.**

 **You're right about Danzo, of course. He gets his longest appearance so far in this chapter, right at the start. However, don't forget that Danzo and Kakashi share a history together, though it was based on a lie.**

 **Naruto's forgiveness...isn't likely. You're right. However, for the same reasons that Kakashi held a grudge against Tsunade, Naruto could be convinced that his paternal grandmother didn't _really_ care about him. It all depends on whose voice would have the most effect, the fastest, and between Orochimaru and Kurama...not that either of them particularly like Kakashi or Tsunade, but Naruto's hanging by whatever threads his rage can grapple with.**

 **Kakashi didn't justify the civil war. Jiraiya attacked Hiashi, and the lines were drawn then; Kakashi took charge, but only because he's a recognizable figure...and I never said that he could trump Nagato/Pein. The only non-Osutsuki characters who I think, canonically, could beat him are Itachi and Madara. And even then, Itachi would be an underdog.**

 **Madara would _crush_ Pein. Easily.**

* * *

 **9\. Noahendless:**

 **I'm not gonna lie, that made me laugh. I needed that laugh.**

* * *

 **10\. Lord Bedhead:**

 **Oh, I _know_ I tried to do too much. Or, at least, I know that now...oops. Well, the past is the past, and I'll know not to extend myself to three theaters in the future. As for Izumi, she's not even someone I knew of until I looked at Itachi's wiki page, and then went to hers. In canon, their tale is a tragedy that's really kind of befitting of Itachi's character. I believe he really did love her, or else he wouldn't have believed that killing her would allow him to follow through and kill the rest of the clan.**

* * *

 **11\. OneLunchMan:**

 **That's a good question. Danzo has the force and tactical guile to do it, Itachi has the strength to do it, and the love for the village, and Kakashi has the support of more than a few people...though all three have their obvious drawbacks as well. Danzo is seen as militant and untrustworthy, Itachi was branded a criminal after the Uchiha massacre, and Kakashi kind of committed regicide.**

 **Whoops. I guess we'll see.**

* * *

 **12\. ArtanisRose:**

 **Whether or not Kakashi understands the consequences of his actions, he lived through and fought in the Third Great War; the cost of any war is always far too high.**

 **Political suicide, at the very least, unless he immediately goes OOC and solidifies all the clans underneath his strength.**

* * *

 **13\. Fromaster24:**

 **That's a legitimate concern, seeing as (Obi[To)bi] was the main antagonist for fuck knows how long. Geez, remember when people thought he was actually Madara?**

 **I do have a big bad in mind, one that'd lampshade everything Kishimoto tried to do with the last ~100 chapters and also make fun of the outrage that many people have displayed (and may continue to,) over the course of these last 11-12 chapters...but it'd be no fun revealing who it is now, and my mind may change as I go on. We'll see, I guess.**

* * *

 **14\. Fuyuriku:**

 **That's a good point. In my attempts at character-building through past events and pseudo-flashbacks, I may not have developed them enough in the "present" and therefore their characterization suffered. It could also easily be a buffer on your part, like you said, or that I'm not adequately putting what's in my head onto the page.**

 **That's a very short response for the length of the review you gave, but that's honestly the most solid critique I've ever gotten on this site, and you have my thanks for that. I'll try to be more careful of that in the future.**

* * *

 **15\. Arford:**

 **It's inevitable that such a large-quantity cast like _Naruto's_ will cause quality to suffer in varying degrees. It would have been much easier to keep it to three or four characters, and develop them very strongly while leaving all other characters as secondary or tertiary...but where's the ambition in that? The only way to get better is by doing, and while mistakes are bound to happen, that's how you learn to improve; success doesn't teach anything except that you were right, while failure tells you how to get better so that you can succeed again.**

 **In fanfiction, as far as I'm concerned, canon is like the "Pirate Code" from the _Pirates of the Caribbean_ movies...it's a guideline, at best. In fanfic, I can do whatever I want, so why would I necessarily stick to canon's series of events? An author has to be inventive, and I can't do that by only having minor discrepancies with canon.**

* * *

 **Well, _THAT_ took forever. It also doubled the size of the chapter, so...yeah. Let's hope I don't have such a high-influx of reviews again, otherwise I may have to stop posting review responses and instead just PM people.**

 **That's a lot of PMs I'll need to send.**

 **Remember that one chapter, way back, where I complained about not feeling like I was getting enough reviews? I take it back.**

 **Now, at long fucking last...**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"The battle is over, Danzo-sama." An operative of Ne said.

"Of course it is. Notable casualties?" Danzo was sitting in a plain chair, in the Ne corps' command center.

"Jiraiya and the Hokage, as well as Hyuuga Hiashi."

That information came as a surprise; _both_ of the Sannin had perished in battle? Hiashi was superfluous, of course, as there would always be another Hyuuga...though this technically left the absent Hinata as the next clan head. In her place, the younger sibling would have to step up and become their de facto leader.

Still, their deaths would make a complete sweep of Konoha's political structure...viable. Not only that, but it would be _easy._ Danzo wasn't used to things being easy, as anyone who looked at his bandaged eye and arm could tell. When things were easy, it meant that there was trouble ahead. Other ninja would take advantage of their opportunistic circumstances, but Danzo would let nine chances pass before jumping for the tenth. He was always searching for the better option, the _best_ option.

It wasn't likely to get any better than this. Though Danzo wasn't one to chase personal glory, it was no secret to anybody that he'd always coveted the position of Hokage. Even now, as he was rapidly approaching his eightieth birthday, he couldn't deny that he wanted the seat and the hat. With it, Ne could be safely maintained and operated without the digging questions by the village's other prominent figures; very few people were willing to go against the Hokage directly.

"How?"

"Hiashi killed Jiraiya, but was disemboweled in the process. Tsunade gave up when he died, and Kakashi killed her."

"He did _what?_ "

The operative bowed his head, vanishing.

The idea had always been to dethrone Tsunade, never to kill her. The medical advancements she'd made were invaluable. If she were to be removed from power, but kept within the village, she could still have presided as the chief of staff at Konoha's hospital; Jiraiya's death was a major blow as well, for his reputation as a seal-master. It wasn't an overly critical death, as Danzo liked to consider himself the equal or better of the Toad Sage, but Fuinjutsu was not on Danzo's public list of skills.

Furthermore, the idea of Hiashi being able to kill Jiraiya, after being disembowled? Either there was something he was missing, or the impossible had happened. What could cause the _Jyuken_ to overpower someone with Jiraiya's strength?

He probably hadn't been using any of his seals. Jiraiya had a tendency to avoid using them in favor of arts that took less long-term preparation, or that wouldn't risk damaging his allies. Even with the months that had passed since the civil war's inception, and the relative ease of creating a chakra-absorbing seal that would have stopped the _Jyuken_ from being able to do any damage to his tenketsu...Jiraiya was a stubborn fool who'd always believed that his convictions would bolster his strength; unlike his teammates, sensei, or any of his students, Jiraiya was no natural-born talent among the shinobi of the world. Even Shizune had a stronger and more notable pedigree!

A long, breathy sigh escaped Danzo's lips as he pondered the consequences of the war, in both its immediate effects and the long-term damages that would be done. In the months that had passed, he could only assume that somewhere between two and three million ryo had been lost from missions they would have taken. Now, after Kakashi had committed regicide, any political aspirations that he had would likely be over; it would likely be best if he returned to the Anbu, where his name and face would be heard and seen as little as possible.

There was also the matter of Konoha's enemies. The most staunch among them were Iwagakure and Orochimaru, despite Danzo's natural prejudice against the ninja of Kumogakure; while it was true that Danzo viewed all non-Konoha shinobi as the village's enemies, he also couldn't deny the fact that allies were useful. Especially after such a crippling blow as this civil war.

Orochimaru was generally more content to be left alone to his research, however; he only turned particularly vindictive when he believed that he could get something out of it. The most obvious example was his invasion of Konoha, an attempt that had been specifically to eliminating Sunagakure from global power, and also capture Uchiha Sasuke. Though Hiruzen's death had been a devastating blow, it was a side-effect, and the village had recovered thanks to its minimal losses overall.

Suna was still bound by their alliance pact after the failed invasion that had decimated their forces. Kirigakure was barely more than a year out from their own civil war, though Uzumaki Naruto had apparently played a critical role in keeping the bloodshed lower. Both of those villages had Jinchuriki, and Kage, that owed Naruto their lives; it likely wouldn't even require force, through words or actions, to get them to help Konoha if another war came.

Kumogakure was, at best, neutral. They'd maintained a relationship with Konoha that had balanced itself between enmity and rivalry, the two villages opposing each other in all three of the Great Wars that had encompassed the inception of hidden villages. Just as the Kinkaku Force had been responsible for the Nidaime Hokage's death, Danzo had personally assassinated the Shodaime Raikage and his brother.

In his youth, Danzo had been Konoha's peerless assassin, whose moniker as the _Yami no Shinobi_ was as much from his militant ideology as it was from his tendency to strike while his targets were sleeping.

It was that training, in the back of his mind, that told him he wasn't alone.

"It's been a long time, Danzo." The words came from behind him, but the surprise didn't garner an expression.

"Ah, Itachi. How goes the mission?"

"The masked man is dead." If Itachi didn't know better, he would have thought that Danzo couldn't care less whether he lived or died.

That information was enough to bring a smile to Danzo's face. The man who called himself Tobi, who was responsible for the Kyuubi's unsealing and its attack on Konoha, was finally dead and gone.

"I've kept my word, as you can see. Sasuke is under the watch of one of my agents, along with the rest of his classmates. They're out looking for Uzumaki Naruto."

Itachi knew that much, but stayed silent as Danzo continued.

"Unfortunately, Tsunade and Jiraiya are both dead. This means that your mission can end at any time, as we need all the powerful ninja in the village that we can muster."

"I can't do that. I'm too far under-cover, regarding most of the Akatsuki, though Pein knows where my true loyalty lies."

"And he didn't kill you on the spot?" Danzo questioned. "I remember him, a long time ago. The Rinnegan is a fearsome weapon in the right hands, and the Uzumaki only make it deadlier."

"And what about the Uchiha?"

Itach performed a quick _shunshin,_ appearing before Danzo and staring the elderly man down with his newly-aquired Dojutsu.

"You are a dangerous man, Itachi."

That was high praise, coming from Danzo.

"A long time ago, you told me that I was very much like you. You told me that I could become your successor. I'd expect nothing less than to live up to those expectations."

In the torch-lit room where they spoke, Danzo knew it was coming...he had known for a long, long time. The sword plunged through his chest from behind, but he remained calm. Unsealing a scroll, he gave an underhand toss to Itachi.

"Take that to Sai." He coughed. "My last mission for you."

Itachi nodded, vanishing. When Danzo was certain that nobody was there, in the final seconds before he died, he activated the _Izanagi._

He was the shadow that encased the roots of Konoha. He was the darkness that haunted every shadowed alley, every dim hallway, and the mind of all ninja. He was eternal, for as long as there was light, the darkness in the hearts of men could never die.

Orochimaru would want to hear about these developments; the White Snake might even be susceptible, after spending so much time away from the limelight. That wasn't something Danzo would count on, though. Unlike Jiraiya, he would always overestimate his opponents.

* * *

Zabuza had deposited them on the shores of Kaminari no Kuni, after a lack of storms allowed him to find the way perfectly. The truth of the matter, of course, was his genuine fear of Mei.

Their group had expanded from its original thirteen members; the Uzumaki trio, Haku, Chojuro, and Gaara's older siblings had pushed the grand total up to twenty. Sai continued to act as their leader, and they'd been travelling northwest when they were stopped.

"Hello, children of Konoha."

The speaker was an emaciated redhead, flesh clinging to bone far too well for most of the onlookers' comfort. Despite his withered look, he moved with confidence, his loyalties only betrayed by the black-with-red-clouds cloak and the Amegakure hitai-ate that was remarkably unslashed, given the symbolism that the Akatsuki's members attributed to such an action.

Despite all of this, though, the man's most striking features were his eyes: the light lilac was set with three black rings, the unmistakable appearance of the Rinnegan.

"I am Uzumaki Nagato." He introduced himself. "My lady, Oboro-sama, the years have been kinder to you than I."

"Nagato?" Oboro thought, trying to remember an Uzumaki by that name. "Saemi and Gouza's little boy? You couldn't have been older than six when..."

"I wasn't. My parents and I managed to escape, and we made it all the way to Amegakure before an Iwa shinobi killed my parents in front of me. The trauma woke my Rinnegan."

Sasuke understood; the Sharingan was generally awoken under similar circumstances, and the Mangekyou state was released when an intensely personal grief was revealed.

"After that, Jiraiya-sensei found me, along with Konan and one other...and he trained us for several years, until long after the war ended."

"Konan? She's one of you, too?" Tayuya asked.

"That cloak marks you as a member of the Akatsuki." Shikamaru said. "What business do you have with us?"

"Your goal is to rescue my clansman, which I wish to assist, despite our...polarity." Nagato admitted. "Mine is to kill Orochimaru, as a way to tie up loose ends within my organization. My assumption is that Itachi has killed Tobi by now, since the civil war is over."

"It is?" Kiba asked. "What happened?"

"Nothing good, of course." Nagato said. "I'd be a poor leader of a hidden village if I didn't have spies in place, but...I'm not sure that now is the time or place."

Nagato wasn't entirely certain whether or not Zetsu counted as a, "placed," spy, but the cannibalistic half-plant was certainly well-suited for undetected infiltration missions. The _Kagerou_ was the only technique that had ever been able to trump the detection barrier he'd set up across Amegakure.

"No." Shino said. "If something happened, we deserve to know."

"Very well, then." Nagato paused. "There were relatively few casualties, given the length of the war, but...some people died who may be important to you. Hyuuga Hiashi, Inuzuka Hana, the Hokage, and my sensei, Arashi Jiraiya, are among them."

"F-father is..." Hinata trailed off, while Neji raised his eyebrows in shock.

"Big sis is dead?" Kiba asked, disbelieving.

"The Hokage, and her right hand man? You've got to be pulling my leg." Shikamaru said, denying the Rinnegan-bearer's words. Sakura echoed the Nara heir's sentiments; her teacher wasn't that easy to take down.

All of them had good reasoning, for their own thoughts.

Hiashi was the most skilled _Jyuken_ user in the Hyuuga clan since Konoha's founding, though Neji was on track to surpass him. His speed, his precision, and the strength of his Byakugan, were unmatched by almost anyone..and, as the clan head, he held access to certain secret techniques of their family.

Kiba had grown up in his sister's shadow, though he'd always seen it as a rivalry regarding who would become the next pack alpha. He didn't possess her natural talent with the clan's techniques, and he certainly wasn't her intellectual equal...by a long shot...but he'd always tried to prove himself worthy of becoming the next clan head, instead of her. He hadn't wanted it to come like this, though.

Lastly, Jiraiya and Tsunade were both legendary figures, each in their own right. While Tsunade hadn't possessed the outright combat prowess that either of her teammates did, since her specialties resided in Taijutsu and medical techniques, she was credited as a deciding factor towards Konoha's victory in the Second Great War. Her advancements in battlefield treatment, her ability to neutralize toxins without a known antidote, and the creation of Konoha's med-nin program, were all instrumental in providing a longer lifespan to Konoha shinobi.

Jiraiya, on the other hand, had been much more of a front-line fighter. Famed for his prowess in Fuinjutsu and Ninjutsu alike, as well as being the holder of the Toad Summoning Contract, the _Gama Sennin_ had been at his strongest with wide area-of-effect Ninjutsu, such as the _Raiton: Raigen'ya_ and the _Doton: Yomi Numa._ If Shikamaru had to guess, the reason he died would have had to do with an unwillingness to kill his own countrymen, or an unwillingness to harm his allies with the large-scale techniques he specialized in.

"It's true." Nagato insisted. "Jiraiya-sensei gutted Hiashi, but I'm assuming he used a secret Hyuuga technique to keep himself alive long enough to immobilize Jiraiya-sensei and deal lethal damage. Once that was done, the Hokage killed Hiashi, but when Jiraiya-sensei died, she gave up hope. That was when Hatake Kakashi killed her."

Sai had a confused look on his face, but he shook it away.

"As much as I would love to finish this conversation now," the Ne commander-in-training said, "we still have time to make it to Kumo by nightfall. We should move while we can."

Nagato nodded, adding another member to their group as he fell in with Oboro, Rei, and Kouga. He didn't mind the distrust that some of them would treat him with. After all...he was the leader of the Akatsuki. One thing he was surprised at, though, was Oboro; the Nidaime Uzukage's wife hadn't been in any of his visions, and neither had those children who never seemed to stray from her side.


	50. Inescapable Damnation

**So...I'm sorry for the late update, though "late" is a relative term for this fic. I got into an accident several days back, and my feet got _fucked up._ I basically destroyed the outside of my right foot, and on my left, I got cut deep enough that an artery opened. I've been out of commission, and only recently managed to unhook myself from pain meds for long enough to stay awake and finish a chapter. I'm gonna pass out in a minute when I publish this.**

 **No review responses this chapter. I know that's been a staple, but...fuck, guys, just take the chapter. I'll try to update soon, but it may be 3-4 days before I get something new out.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"Hm...you're certain?" Orochimaru asked.

"Beyond the shadow of a doubt, Orochimaru-sama." Kabuto answered.

"Very well. You're dismissed, Kabuto-kun."

Nodding, the medic left the room.

The last living Sannin's serpentine eyes narrowed, plans beginning to formulate in his mind. Jiraiya and Tsunade were both dead, and Danzo's full sweep of Konoha's political frame was imminent. It would be all too easy for Kakashi to be taken in the shadows, for the Council of Clans to become outvoted due to some of his Yamanaka soldiers' techniques...outvoted, and then disbanded, after Danzo proclaimed himself the Rokudaime Hokage. The board had been set up beautifully in the elder's favor, almost too good to be true.

He would go for it. Danzo was patient, but all assassins were opportunists at heart. Orochimaru knew that, he'd killed enough of them that he no longer bothered to hide.

Though the White Snake held no loyalty to his former home, he almost wondered whether or not it would be proper to mount an invasion specifically to eliminate Danzo from the world's stage.

Orochimaru's eyes flicked to the side, where the unnaturally-aged children stayed within their stasis chambers. While it was true that he'd given Danzo the most advanced prosthetic he could make at the time, as well as the most dangerous, he had the tools necessary to counteract that weaponized arm.

Releasing Naruto was a non-option, no matter how willing Naruto might be to annihilate one of their profession's most unrepentant villains. It was true that Danzo hadn't actually done much in the way of destroying the Uzumaki, and Ne operatives had in fact given Oboro protection as she fled to Konoha...but he'd cut down the Nidaime Uzukage without a second thought.

Orochimaru knew Danzo. Any ally that grew too strong, any asset that proved too capable, would be cut down with neither remorse nor hesitation. That was one reason why he didn't mind the fact that his experiments had been discovered and he'd been forced to flee Konoha; Sannin or not, Danzo would have come after him eventually, and that wasn't a battle Orochimaru relished the thought of.

The Sandaime Hokage had an emotional bond with Orochimaru that he'd never quite managed to sever, preventing him from using his full force. Danzo didn't have that problem, let alone something as weighing as a moral compass. He would act in Konoha's interests first, and his own desires second, with no thought to anyone else's thoughts on the matter. It had made him a reliable asset to Konoha, and a thorn in the sides of its enemies.

He watched Karin through a one-way mirror, saw her effectively switch between the data-entry terminal and watching over Naruto. Though she didn't stop the experiments that Orochimaru ran, she was far gentler with him than the White Snake would have been. She would hold his hand and talk to him, and on seeing that, Orochimaru's inhumanly long-fanged grin was sincere...in its twisted, malicious joy.

No...he wouldn't move to attack Konoha, even in their time of weakness. He couldn't trust the shinobi under his thumb to remain complacent with a temporary ruler; he was liable to return to a smoldering heap when he returned. Furthermore, he wasn't entirely willing to stray too far from Naruto.

Orochimaru's great-nephew genuinely intrigued him, beyond the boy's use as a test subject. He was certainly stronger than most people would ever give him credit for, single-handedly defeating two rampaging Biju and the men in whom they were sealed. He was strong enough to stop Sasuke, who'd been corrupted by the _Ten no Infuin_ and its cursed Senjutsu chakra. He'd held his own against Kirabi, Kumogakure's foremost Kenjutsu master and the Hachibi Jinchuriki.

The problem with his status wasn't his strength, it was his intelligence. Naruto was a classic example of someone who was good at his job, and good at following orders, but not at on-the-spot thinking in the middle of a battle. If he'd chosen to use Senjutsu, or even a more sincere pull upon the Kyuubi's chakra, rather than a last-ditch explosion that had nearly killed them both...Naruto would have won the battle, cleanly and clearly.

On top of that, he was honest to a fault in a profession where one wrong word could bring death and ruin to a nation.

Orochimaru laughed to himself, quickly, before he went away to check on someone else.

He wondered what both Jiraiya and Tsunade had seen in Naruto. Why they had decided, even to their deaths, that they should protect and fight for the Konoha that he'd grown up in...but, either way, it would be the same Konoha that he would return to. Naruto wouldn't be the same, either.

In almost three months of near-constant torture, he hadn't broken; he had accepted the pain, and he had resigned himself to his fate, but his mind was still intact.

A blessing. Orochimaru needed as many competent subjects as he could get. He knew, in his heart, that he was running out of time; the snake was cunning, the snake could sense its prey and its hunters when they drew close, and Orochimaru was a snake both preying and hunted.

Kabuto's status as a double-agent for Sasori came in handy. Pein had left Amegakure, joining the children of Konoha, who trained each day as they continued their journey to bring Naruto back to his home. But would there be a home to return to? Konoha's deaths had been relatively minimal, though more than a few high-profile shinobi had been killed. If Iwa and Kumo held an alliance, a mutual strike at Konoha would spell certain doom for any ninja born in Hi no Kuni.

He didn't know how to feel about that. While it was true that Orochimaru had no true loyalty to any village or institution, he was loyal to _people._ Even to Jiraiya and Tsunade. He had been willing to be cursed at, for others to rue the day he left his mother's womb; he had accepted all the things that could, and did, happen. Orochimaru held no doubt that what many said was true: he was a villain.

What he had always denied, however, was that he was _evil._ In the lives of ninja, morality was grey at best, and nonexistent at worst. Orochimaru maintained that his experiments were not moral, but they were necessary. Progress was necessary, and stagnation was the enemy. Perfection was supposed to be impossible, and even undesirable...perfection meant that nothing could be improved, which was the antithesis of the shinobi lifestyle.

Orochimaru sought the process to create the perfect body, one that could not be destroyed by illness, jutsu, or blade. He wanted to possess the mind that understood all things, one that was able to see and know all.

He was running out of time.

The notion of his demise was ever-present.

He was running out of time.

* * *

Onoki was an old, old man. Older than his Konoha-born counterpart, the Sandaime Hokage, he had seen the last days of the Warring Clans period, and even fought against Uchiha Madara in his later teenage years. Now, not so long after his hundredth birthday, the news that came to greet him was as troubling as it was welcome.

Konoha had started, and ended, its civil war. Their Hokage was dead, and each faction left unsatisfied by the conclusion; such was the nature of compromise, where nobody ever got what they wanted.

Just as the mountains he had been born upon, and raised within, Onoki was a man whose thoughts were carved in stone, and whose judgement was long in coming. He did not burn with the passion of fire, he did not follow the whimsy of the wind. He could not strike with the speed of ligtning, nor adapt to any situation like water. He was the rock upon the mountainside, a fixture that could neither move nor be moved, except by something strong enough to shake the very foundation of the earth.

The earth was shaken. Day was dark, water was dry, and Konoha was in disarray.

He couldn't wait, however.

He wouldn't wait to see if they recovered. If they came back stronger, as Konoha always had.

That was what irritated Onoki the most about Konoha. Though they were mocked as pacifists, 'tree-huggers,' and all the rest of the insults that had cropped up over the last eighty years...Konoha _never_ lost. There was always some pugilistic talent hidden within those leaves, some horrifying power that had yet to be unleashed.

Onoki remembered the _Kiiroi Senko._ He remembered the _Issenjutsu no Meijin._ He remembered the _Shinobi no Kami._ He remembered the Sannin.

Most of all, though, he remembered the piercing, luminescent, blood-red Mangekyou Sharingan of Uchiha Madara.

He remembered pain as the fires of _Amaterasu_ had destroyed his armor, how the _Kamui_ had killed his father in one explosive stroke. The _Susano'o,_ in its ethereal glory, as it cut down the Nidaime Tsuchikage.

Onoki was _na sléibhte,_ in the tongue of an elder age, from before the gods were born. He was of the mountains, and he would return to the mountains in death.

Konoha...they had allied with Konoha, long ago, before he rose to the position of Tsuchikage. That had changed, one fateful day, when Onoki had been lucky to live after Madara had struck. Ever since, they had been enemies, a blood-oath sworn to the corpses of his fallen brothers and sisters.

His thoughts were carved in stone. His judgement was swift in coming.

Onoki, the ancient lord of dust and ashes that had been burned so long ago, gave his orders.

* * *

"Hey, little Rei! Kouga, I know ya! How ya little fools doin', on a day the cows are mooin'?"

"Hello, Kirabi. Your brother's given us leave to stay like we did last time." Oboro said.

"Hm...miss Oboro, you've picked up quite an entourage. Some hotel's gonna get barraged!"

Haku wasn't thinking of anything; that was his first and only mistake. Unbidden, the image came to his mind of Kirabi rapping while Zabuza sang, the two of them sailing into the face of the rising sun. Were it not for his mask, the look of abject horror on his face would have been plain to see.

"Greetings, Kirabi-san. I am Sai, the leader of this mission. As you can see, I have...quite a collection of allies."

"That I do, it's true." Kirabi rhymed. "So, how long are ya stayin' for, should this killer bee give a tour?"

Tayuya looked at Kirabi pointedly.

"Kirabi, do you know why we're here?"

"No."

"Naruto was captured by Orochimaru. We're going to take him back."

"What? That kid got beat?"

"We were asking the Raikage if he would let us operate with help from Kumogakure shinobi, since Orochimaru has two major bases here."

"My bro said no. I know what he thought, to him the Jinchuriki are part of a plot. He'll see this as a sign that he's right to keep me and Yugito out of a fight."

News had reached E, Kirabi, and the rest of Kumogakure's upper echelon, that Konoha's civil war had ended. Political unrest was still prevalent, and there was no unified leader in the village. Just before the children from Konoha had arrived, E had received a letter from the Tsuchikage that asked for one thing: an alliance, born from a century of hate for Konoha, to destroy the ninja who hid in the leaves.

Kirabi knew his brother's answer. He remembered the shame and rage that E had felt after his decisive loss to Namikaze Minato. Their father had been killed by Konoha. The Shodaime and Sandaime Raikage had been killed by Konoha.

He knew that the trees would soon be burning. These children, soon enough, wouldn't have a home to go back to. When that day came, they'd be trapped in Kumo for the rest of their lives, the Hyuuga and Uchiha used as breeding stock to give the village their signature Dojutsu. The others could be integrated, their clan techniques preserved and passed down with a new allegiance to Kumogakure.

He pitied them.

That red-headed man, though...Kirabi could feel, but not dispel, the Genjutsu over those eyes. His gaunt face and frail appearance gave the appearance of a man who couldn't put up much of a fight, but the Hachibi could sense his chakra.

Chakra that had surpassed its own capacity. Chakra that was eerily reminiscent of someone, whose name the Hachibi refused to reveal. It was serene, overflowing with heavenly malice of a kind that was remembered in nothing but dreaming whispers. It was as if the dead gods had poured all of their will into this man, their final champion.

Kirabi was not a man who was frightened easily. The only ninja who'd ever spooked him was Naruto, as he'd screamed in victorious rage after Yagura's death. That had been a fear born from the knowledge that he would never naturally surpass Naruto's talent for battle.

This man before him, who shared his clan name with the blond from Konoha, whose full name was only separated by one syllable...this _Uzumaki Nagato,_ he instilled a primal fear in Kirabi's heart that could not be denied.

Amegakure, strongest of the minor villages, was famous for two things: its enigmatic former leader, Hanzo, and its isolationism after his death. Nagato never spoke without purpose, his eyes were _always watching._ His eyes were _always waiting._ He gave off an aura of being in all places at all times, that he knew everything that could be known.

Someone like that couldn't be allowed to live.

Someone like that couldn't be made to die.

* * *

"Are you saying that we should just roll over and let you become the Hokage?"

"I don't know that you have much choice, Kakashi. Who else would it be, you?" Danzo scoffed. "Half the village hates you. More than half, if you include the civilians...which I don't. Itachi has returned to his mission in the Akatsuki, Naruto is missing in action, and nobody who's qualified is particularly fond of the job's requirements, though improving upon Tsunade's short-lived reign shouldn't be difficult to achieve."

"He's right, Kakashi." Shikaku said.

The Council of Clans had gathered around a table, informally, though there was no Hyuuga present. Behind Kakashi stood Yugao and Yamato, despite everyone's intention to prevent further violence.

"You killed her. She would have submitted, but you killed her." Tsume growled.

The Inuzuka matron had been struck harshly. Her elder child and presumed heir had been killed, one of the few lethal casualties of the war, and her younger child was still AWOL. She was in no mood for pleasantries or kindness.

"You're a family woman, Tsume." Kakashi countered. "That woman committed more than one crime against her family, and I was disgusted by her."

"What family? Her family is dead. Has _been_ dead, for a long time. Tobirama was childless, and Hashirama only had one child, her father. Her brother died in the Second Great War, and so did her lover."

"Not before she was pregnant with his child, who she abandoned."

"Name it, then!"

"Namikaze Minato."

"He did grow up an orphan, though I remember him making a point, as a child, over the fact that his parents weren't dead. He never did find out who they were, though..."

"Jiraiya and Hiruzen both knew." Danzo said. "Blond shades of hair are abnormal colors in Hi no Kuni, particularly among ninja outside of the Yamanaka clan. The idea wasn't hard to piece together, that he might have been her child, and it's impossible for anyone with eyes to deny that Naruto is Minato's son. Tsunade abandoned Minato to an orphanage, she abandoned Naruto to a life without knowing his last remaining family, and she let her vices control her."

"I'll say it again: are we supposed to just let you waltz in and take the office of Hokage?" Kakashi asked.

"I can't fault you for your distaste, Kakashi. Nor can I say that those who remained loyal to Tsunade were in the wrong. I may not have agreed with many of her policies, but she was still the Hokage, and you killed her."

Kakashi gave no physical reaction, letting his words convey his feelings.

"What should I do, then?" He asked, though the question was rhetorical. "Besides, are we all going to ignore that she killed Hiashi?"

"Hiashi dealt lethal damage to Jiraiya, and he was already dying when Tsunade landed the final blow." Inoichi said. "By anyone's account, that would have been justified...but I guess you wouldn't know what it's like to take revenge for your fallen teammates, since you're the one who killed them."

Before the Yamanaka head could react, he'd been sent to the floor and been pinned by Kakashi, who held a kunai over his throat.

"Say that one more time. I dare you."

"Kakashi!" Yugao yelled, chastising her former captain. "We're trying to prevent more deaths."

"Konoha needs unity." Yamato agreed with his teammate. "We won't get closer to that goal if you keep killing more of its prominent members."

Kakashi stood up, moving away, but the air of the meeting had changed.

"Disrespect their memory one more time, and there won't be time for them to talk me out of killing you." He threatened.

Danzo grimaced. Kakashi had embraced the wolf in his blood, more violent and feral than before the civil war...but the others wouldn't see it that way. To them, he was a mad dog who needed to be put down; he would just be one more casualty of the hatred that governed their world.

Peace in Konoha, and therefore Danzo's attempts to ascend to the position of Rokudaime Hokage, wouldn't be achieved quickly.


	51. When It Rains

**Word count is a little short, but writer's block is a bitch, and you guys are probably hungry for another chapter. So, here you go. A big thank you to everyone wishing me a good recovery!**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. ArtanisRose: Kakashi is definitely someone who, even in canon, I have very mixed feelings toward. On the one hand, I deeply respect and identify with his loyalty toward his friends, and while it wasn't really shown in canon, he does supposedly have access to a wide array of techniques. He's strong. However, as a teacher...he fucking sucks. And, as a ninja, he's not above twisting his morals to fit the situation without breaking them. He's deep if you want to go deep on his character, you could definitely make a case for the fact that he's fucked in the head, but...I don't know. We'll see.**

 **2\. Ordo-Silver: I have tried so, _so_ damn hard to humanize Orochimaru. I'm glad that people think I've done a good job with it. The political aspect is a hit-or-miss for some readers; on the one hand, some people think it belongs in an entirely different story, because the idea of Konoha at war with itself is anomalous to the entire idea of Konoha.**

 **It's not. The two founding clans, and their vassals, were at constant war with one another until Hidden Villages became the norm. The idea that they would collapse backwards on that isn't so far-fetched. However, where _other_ people draw the line is my "unrealistic" portrayal of certain battles. (Naruto vs Orochimaru / Jiraiya vs Hiashi) And on the one hand, they have a point. Naruto and Jiraiya are both powerful.**

 **They're also both pretty stupid, though Naruto moreso than Jiraiya. Don't pretend that all the abuse Jiraiya suffered at Tsunade's hands wouldn't lead to brain damage.**

 **Nagato...I've got some interesting ideas. You might see one, toward the end of the chapter.**

 **3\. tastybigsexy: It's a race against time, and the clock has a definite lead. Can it be overcome?**

 **4\. Drake Vallion: It's a grim picture indeed...so, to add in yet another WoT reference, _dovie'andi se tovya sagain._ "It's time to toss the dice."**

 **5\. Kyoto141092: Can we? Sure. Will we? Debatable. All good things must come to an end, and all bad things must die.**

 **6\. OneLunchMan: Truth be told, there's not a whole lot of end in sight. Vague ideas, guesses of how I might want it to go, but nothing concrete.**

 **Picture a chessboard; Konoha is now missing its "King" and "Queen" pieces, in Jiraiya and Tsunade. The clans, who we'll call the Rooks and Bishops, haven't moved because the player isn't sure what's going to happen. The Rookie Twelve, et al., are the Pawns, and they've straight up fucked off to an entirely separate board. Naruto, who for this purpose is a Knight, is out. So Konoha's basically operating with five pieces on their chess board. The whole rest of the world is completely full-armed. Who's playing the game? Danzo. He's got too many "replacement" pieces to keep Konoha so far down for long.**

 **Now, as for who he's playing against...that's an entirely separate question. Truth be told, he doesn't even know his opponent's identity.**

 **As of last chapter (the 50th), _Within the Straws I Grasp_ has amassed: 334 reviews, 479 followers, 325 favorites, and 110,230 views. Thanks for the support!**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

Naruto was, physically, at the weakest he'd been since his childhood. He could no longer remember the taste of food, nutrients sent into his bloodstream intravenously. The feeling of the wind on his face, that day before they'd struck at Orochimaru's central Otogakure base, was more like a dream than a memory. It was an existence from another time and place, but it was not him. It was not his.

Naruto's existence was blood, and pain, and darkness. He'd lost track of how long he'd been here. The rage he kept inside of himself, the essence of the Kyuubi, had lost.

He felt helpless. Cold. Tayuya had always marveled at how warm he was, at all times of the day...but he couldn't feel that warmth himself. He didn't even have the presence of mind required to withdraw into the _Shiki Fuin._

"I've brought some more guests for you, Naruto-kun. The rest of your guard, as it were." Orochimaru smirked, though the expression was lost on Naruto's sightless eye-sockets.

"What the hell even happened to him?"

"He looks...fragile."

"Ah, don't disparage him based on his current state." Orochimaru chastised the pair. "Even like this, if I released him from that machine, he could destroy both of you without batting an eyelash."

"Yeah, him and what demon?" The first stranger asked. "He couldn't swat a fly out of the air. How the hell would he match me, or Juugo?"

"Easily." Orochimaru countered the question. "He should have killed me. Naruto, the two of them are Suigetsu and Juugo."

"Naruto?" Juugo asked. "As in, Uzumaki Naruto of Konoha? The one credited with stopping your invasion of Konoha by defeating the Ichibi, and who led the mission that resulted in the Sound Four's deaths?"

"Good to know I'm famous." Naruto groaned between gritted teeth. "Makes it _so easy_ to keep a low profile and surprise people when I kill them."

"Any organization or nation of half-hearted importance knew who you were when you defeated Sabaku no Gaara." Karin replied. "And when you killed Yagura, the whole world knew your name. You're an Uzumaki, the ground you walk on is going to shake with your footsteps."

"Goddammit. What the hell happened to the idea that secrecy is paramount?"

"This, from the child whose first word was, 'Hokage,' and whose first full sentence had that word prefaced with, 'I'm going to be the?' Where was secrecy then?" Orochimaru's tongue slipped out from his mouth as he gave a short laugh.

Naruto would have rolled his eyes, if he had them.

"So I'm a loudmouth. So what?"

"So, nobody takes you seriously." Karin said. "I mean, don't feel too bad, Suigetsu's in the same boat. The only reason he's acting like you're no big deal is because he's scared shitless."

"I am _not,_ you stupid four-eyed bitch!"

"Suigetsu, my IQ is literally doubled over yours. Not that that's difficult, since you have all the intelligence of an amoeba..."

"The fuck is an uh-me-bah? That sounds like something a confused sheep would ask."

Orochimaru closed his eyes as Karin smirked.

"Suigetsu, you'd probably help your case more if you just didn't talk." Juugo offered his advice.

"Yeah, yeah, so I'm not smart. I don't need to be smart! I just need to know who to point my sword at."

It was terrifying to Naruto, how familiar this back-and-forth banter seemed. As though he might, truly, fit right in with them...or, rather, they with him.

Had his friends truly left him for dead, had he been abandoned? Even by Tayuya?

All he had, to convince himself otherwise, was faith.

* * *

"Tayuya. Tayuya! Wake up!" A hand shook Tayuya by the shoulder, the groggy redhead waking from her dreamless sleep.

Tayuya hadn't had a good night's rest since her separation from Naruto. She ate little, and the poor nutrition didn't contribute to her dwindling health. Still, she was alert in short order. It didn't bode well for a ninja to sleep too deeply.

"Yugito?"

The Nibi Jinchuriki smiled softly, but her face returned to seriousness. Illuminated by the moonlight shining through the window, Tayuya saw genuine concern in Yugito's expression.

"You need to wake everyone and leave as soon as you can. Hurry, I don't know how much time you have, and I need to go!" She hissed. "I'll try to give you as much time as I can, but...no promises, okay? Now, hurry!"

With that, the blonde woman was gone...Tayuya didn't waste time. In short order, Sai and Oboro were awake, and the three of them roused the rest of their company. In five minutes, they had cleared their hotel building, and made their way to Kumogakure's southern gate.

An alarm sounded as they passed over the gate, where Yugito met them. Together, they ran down the mountain path that trailed into dense forestry.

"Yugito...why?" Tayuya asked as they paused for a moment, having gained a sufficient lead on their pursuers.

"We're family." Yugito grinned, pointing to Tayuya's stomach. "Village, sex, creed...doesn't matter. You and I are the same, and it's a big sister's job to watch over her younger siblings. You and Naruto deserve a happy ending, so go get it! Give him a kiss for me, though, since I won't be able to?"

"What do you mean, you won't be able to? I mean, I'm his girlfriend and that's reason enough, but..."

"Well, _someone_ is going to need to stay behind and keep them off of your tail." Her smile, with closed eyes, belied the seriousness of her suggestion. "They'll send Kirabi, and none of you are a match for him. I'll at least be able to keep him held down for a while. Okay?"

"No." Nagato spoke up. "I'm the most recent addition to this group. Whether or not you go with them, or you want to play dead as part of an act with me...I, alone, will be sufficient."

The Genjutsu over his eyes and clothing dispelled, revealing his Rinnegan and Akatsuki robe.

"Akatsuki?" Yugito asked. "Why the hell should I trust you?"

"You shouldn't." Nagato's words weren't joined by any egotistical smile, no joking demeanor. "I am Ame no Kami, the god of rain. Anyone who stands against me will find that the weeping clouds bring nothing but pain."

From afar, Nagato could see enough of Kumo's ninja to get a decently-sized headcount of their pursuit party.

"Ugh...fine. Everyone, keep moving!" Yugito said, and she fell in with the multinational group as Nagato stayed behind.

It had been a long time since he'd fought any battle without any of his Paths. Their use brought his chakra pool down to an average level, though it was divided unevenly among his seven bodies due to a bias toward Yahiko's corpse. Now at the full capacity of his abilities, and without needing to stay immobile in order to control the Rikudo Pein, he was free to run amok.

"Rain is a blessing from the gods." He said. "Water is the giver of life. But too much rain, and there will be flooding, even death. Prepare for this, your final storn..."

The son-who-was-not cried out in agony.

The father-who-could-have-been cried out in rage.

His first _Bansho Ten'in_ pulled three Kumo-nin forward, taking them all through their hearts with his black chakra receivers. The _Shinra Tensei_ that followed sent a number of those receivers forward, taking more lives. They still hadn't reached him yet.

"A man will take up the sword, to protect those injuries that burdened his heart on a distant day beyond his memories. A man will wield the sword to die with a smile on his face, on a distant day beyond his dreams."

"How poetic." An unfamiliar voice said, and Nagato looked to his left.

"Your intentions?" He asked.

"I am Higurashi, and my daughter is in the group you're defending. If you'd like, I can help you."

The leader of the Akatsuki shrugged. What harm could it

"Excellent. Now, hold still, my brother's wife would like a word with the terrain of this country."

Higurashi unsealed the Black Betty with a small amount of glee. It had been Kumogakure that killed his brother, and now he could have his vengeance. The _bam-a-lam_ of its double-barreled shots, and the explosions that followed, gave Nagato enough reason to turn and raise an eyebrow.

"That seems a bit excessive."

"Only by the measure of someone who hasn't seen what it means to fight against the Jie."

Higurashi sealed the cannon away again, opting instead to draw a katana.

It had been far too long since he fought alongside an Uzumaki.

* * *

"Fools, ya fools..." Kirabi bemoaned the fate of his comrades as he passed them by. Their broken, lifeless bodies were scattered throughout the forest, and there was one place where a pair of explosions had ripped up the ground beneath him.

"But I don't see how they knew to flee, or how they got pass lil' Ms. Nii."

The answer hit him like a ton of bricks, as he remembered how Yugito had jokingly flirted with Naruto to rile Tayuya up. Or, at least, everyone had thought she was joking; she was a Jounin, she knew better than to get close to ninja from another village. But, if his guess was right, then she'd become a turncoat over her friendship with an enemy.

That kind of behavior warranted execution, at best, and not even her status as the Sandaime Raikage's niece would be enough to save her.

"Damn...alright, guess I'll need to take this seriously."

"That would be the prudent choice, yes." Nagato said, his Rinnegan staring down the muscle-bound Jinchuriki.

"One Uzumaki after another, huh? Shit, I thought ya fools were all supposed to be dead."

"Blame yourself, then. Your village was one of the three that killed my family."

There it was, that declaration of villainy. Kirabi knew what came next: vengeance. Bloodshed made the world keep turning, after all...in short order, Kirabi had a sword in each hand, charging forward. Seconds later, a _Shinra Tensei_ crashed into him, and Kirabi lost the grip on his swords before he fell. Standing up, he ran forward again, to no avail.

This was where specializing in Kenjutsu abandoned him. He had no long-range techniques, he wasn't fast enough to strike before the _Shinra Tensei_ sent him flying backwards, and he wasn't sure that he wanted to know what else the Uzumaki had up his sleeve.

When the first receiver hit him in the thigh, a forearm-length black rod that pierced through his femur, he knew he was right. He _didn't_ want to know.

Maybe that was the reason the Uzumaki been attacked by a three-village coalition. They were far too dangerous to be allowed to live, and the two he'd fought were proof. They weren't normal, they barely even seemed _human._

They had been bred for one purpose: combat. Nagato and Naruto were both living testaments to their clan's battle-prowess.

The first receiver was followed by three more, with one in Kirabi's gut, and each foot. At its host's request, the Hachibi began to release its power. Six tails in the first-stage Biju cloak, along with a flood of Raiton chakra through his nervous system, gave Kirabi the speed he needed to slug Nagato in the face.

"He can absorb chakra too? That's not cool, it leaves me blue!" The Jinchuriki cried, feeling the strength leave his body.

"You know, I don't have to keep you alive. Once I've killed you, as long as your torso remains intact, the Hachibi will stay there for a few days. The extraction won't wait for that long, I promise. Then, perhaps, I can offer your head back to your brother? Compensation is everything, after all."

"The hell would you know? This ain't over, yo!"

"It will be soon. Zetsu!"

The half-plant sprung up from the darkness surrounding them.

 **"Yes,** Pein-sama?"

"Tell the other members to prepare for the ceremony. And, if you don't mind..."

"Of course, **Pein-sama."**

A mass of White Zetsu clones rose up from the ground, attaching themselves to Kirabi and draining his chakra. Though the demon's energy burned their bodies, it was nothing compared to the chakra that they'd been steeped in for more than two thousand years.

They were an extension of the Jubi and its will, the multi-entity of a demon strong enough to tear the heavens asunder and trap the gods within the mortal plane. Kindred spirits to the Godslayer, and all the other Biju, Zetsu could access little more than one or two facets of its originator's power.

That small portion was enough, however. Though Kirabi cut through them, their spores remained, and those spores fed on his chakra to grow...for each Zetsu he cut down, five more took its place, and even for the man who held the second-strongest Biju, Kirabi couldn't last forever.

His swords fell down. His arms were held back, and he was forced down to his knees. Nagato walked forward, a divine radiance around him that Kirabi could visibly see, even in the darkness of night.

"Be at peace."

Nagato placed his hands on either side of Kirabi's face, draining the chakra of man and Biju alike. Try as he might, the burly Kumo-nin couldn't overcome the hold that the Zetsu army held on him, and he had no options left. He didn't have the energy to go into a full transformation, and neither did the Hachibi. They were drained, and beaten, and Kirabi was dying.

This was the power of the Uzumaki.

This was the power of Pein.

"Just so you know, this ain't how I wanted to go..." Kirabi mumbled weakly, feeling his life fade with his chakra.

"May the gods embrace you in their blessed land. Rejoice, cursed one, for in death you will have your freedom."

Kirabi's sunglasses fell from his face, the Rinnegan reflecting in his pupils. The chakra he saw was unlike anything he'd dreamed of, shining like pyrite and surrounded by shadow. It looked so pure, but its holy touch revealed the maleficence behind its will.

"You're just...a pawn."

With those parting words, Yotsuki Kirabi left the world of the living. Whether he was insulting Nagato's power, or warning him of the danger to come, couldn't be foretold, even with the eyes of Samsara held within Pein's grasp.

Some things were hidden, even from the god of the rain.


	52. Toward the Break of Dawn

**Here I am again. Did you miss me? For an update on my feet: both are going to be scarred, and I'm not gonna walk as well as I used to. I think. Doctor says I'll be fine, but in my experience there's a lot of doctors out there who're full of shit, so...toss-up, I guess. We'll see.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. RedCide47: Yeah. Nagato gets a bit more exposure in this chapter, and it ties in with that, if you connect the dots.**

 **2\. Ordo-Silver: Kirabi didn't deserve it at all, but the same can be said of a great many characters in _Naruto._ I don't think Zabuza or Haku deserved to die, or Jiraiya. I don't think Nagato or Konan, or Neji, or plenty of others, deserved to die. That's kind of the point; if all the deaths are of background characters who got no development anyway, why bother making any non-protagonist character important?**

 **Technically, E didn't "turn" on Konoha. They've been a long-standing enemy of Kumo since the time of the First Great War, all the way up through the Hyuuga Incident. Same as Iwa; that's my theory on why those two get painted as allies so often in fic.**

 **That having been said, however...I've done some logging in my life. It can take time, anywhere from minutes to hours, to saw a tree down. Once you finally saw it to the point where it tips, there's no recovery. It's not just magically going to not tip, and keep growing.** **The other option, of course, is to dig up and burn the roots...**

 **3\. Drake Vallion: Yeah, I hold firm on my belief that Nagato/Pein is one of the strongest ninja in the series' canon. Not counting the Osutsuki, I think the only one who's genuinely stronger than him is Madara...and _possibly_ Itachi. I doubt that Itachi could win against the Rikudo Pein, but in a one-on-one against Nagato, I think it'd be possible.**

 **4\. Thinker90: In all honesty? I couldn't think of anything that left him genuinely relevant to the plot. The more characters that are dead, the fewer characters I have to worry about remembering. That's the problem with the Rookie Twelve's group right now: I can't effectively write a scene with that many people in it.**

 **5\. Chuckling-Ghost: I'm glad you've enjoyed the ride so far. Hope you like the rest of it just as much!**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"So...anybody mind telling me what the hell our plan is?" Kiba asked.

"It's finish the mission, or give up and go home." Tayuya said, speeding up and moving toward the front of their group.

They continued running. The sun was rising, and they were closing in on one of Orochimaru's large bases, thanks to Tayuya's guidance. Twenty-one humans and a dog, racing against the light of day as they moved closer to finding and freeing Naruto.

"Do you think Nagato is gonna be okay?" Rei wondered, looking to Oboro for reassurance.

"Of course he is." Oboro replied.

Without warning, a pulse of chakra shot through Tayuya, extending outward from her neck. It was the former location of her cursed seal, now the tattoo-like Uzumaki crest that declared her loyalty. Her foot slipped on the branch she leaped off of, but Sai caught her. Shrugging him off, when he asked if she was alright, she continued forward. Charging ahead, she took the point position.

She'd always been headstrong, and careful preparation had never been in her nature. During her time in Otogakure, that had been Kidomaru's job, and in her time traveling with Naruto, it had been Jiraiya. She wasn't prepared for it to reoccur.

The second time it happened, her face mashed into the side of the branch she'd meant to grab, and she tumbled down to the ground.

* * *

The tide rolled in behind Tayuya, and it took her a moment to realize that she wasn't dreaming. She was in the seal-world, a small island where the Sanbi stood waiting.

 **"It has been a long time since our paths first crossed, child of damnation."** The massive demon-turtle said. **"I would speak with you more, but there others here by the grace of all the gods my kin killed. I imagine they would prefer to say their piece."**

Washing up on the sand, beside her, was Naruto. Emaciated and pale, his presence no longer seemed to shine like the sun. When she dropped to him and held his spirit close, she came close to despair; he seemed near death, as lifelike as a wooden board.

"Ah...Please, Tayuya-chan...help me..." He rasped out.

"It's not an illusion." A different voice, though one she knew well, said.

Jiraiya's ghost, or ghost-to-be, walked up to her.

"Jiraiya? But you're dead!"

"Am I?" The white-haired Sannin's gaze moved to the corner of his eyes, looking into the distance and away from Tayuya. "I mean, I certainly don't feel dead. At least, not in here, I don't. I remember Nagato saying something about it when you met him, but...well, whatever. The point is, I'm here to explain some things. Okay?"

"Okay." Tayuya replied.

"Well, first of all, I'm sorry for being a bad teacher. I know the idea of our trip was to focus on Naruto, since you were already Jounin-level, but I still feel bad about it. Felt bad about it? Eh, moving on...this seal, unfortunately, has a few side-effects. Not because I did a bad job, I promise!"

Tayuya looked at him pointedly, trying to convey her exact thoughts on that without bringing up expletives.

"It's because Naruto used the Enma no Nijuu-Roku Kanadzuchi on you, and he hadn't released it when we sealed the Sanbi into you. Seals don't like to stack on top of one another, you've got to be careful and make sure that the intended purpose will fall through."

"Makes sense." Tayuya said. "Same as mixing any two jutsu together, huh?"

"Right. So, the first side-effect was that your cursed seal from Orochimaru disappeared. I've done some research on that thing, and it turns out that even the original versions contain a fragment of his spiritual presence. I don't think I need to explain what that means, given his talent for body-snatching."

Tayuya didn't know how Orochimaru's soul transfer technique worked, but she did know that it was aptly named. He somehow placed his soul inside of someone. And if everyone who bore a cursed mark possessed a part of his soul inside of them already, it would be like connecting puzzle pieces. If that was the case, then Orochimaru could only be killed if everyone with a cursed seal was dead as well, whether it was the _Infuin no Ten, Infuin no Chi,_ or any of the other marks that he used.

That thought was horrifying.

"In any event, sealing the Sanbi into you effectively burned out the fragment of Orochimaru's soul that was inside of you. However, the backlash from overlapping seals caused you to develop that, uh...well, basically, it's a glorified slave-marker. Not that it actually forces you to act a certain way, but it allows for a minute sort of two-way connection. Why it's only developing now, with that fragment of his soul resting here, I couldn't say. If you send your chakra through it, then you'll be able to get an approximate sense of where he is, and how he's feeling. He can do the same thing, even though he doesn't have a matching mark on his body."

"You're only telling me this _now?_ Goddammit, do you know how much time I could have saved if-" Jiraiya interrupted her before she could finish.

"Your head is a really, really hard one to get into. I've been trying. You and Naruto are well-suited to one another, you're practically carbon copies of his parents. Except, Minato was a lot smarter than Naruto is, and you might be even more stubborn than Kushina. The reason I couldn't get to you before now is because, by virtue of being affected by Orochimaru's cursed seal for so long, you've developed a natural resistance to the effects of anchored seals. I'm not going to get into Fuinjutsu theory, but the Sanbi and I haven't been able to reach you. I don't know why you got brought inside of your seal like this, but I suspect that it has something to do with your boyfriend right there."

The gaunt apparition shuddered in Tayuya's hands. This wasn't Naruto. It couldn't be Naruto. She had to believe that he wasn't this sickly in Orochimaru's hands, wasting away...

"I don't know how he got here." Jiraiya's ghost continued. "But use it to your advantage. Find him! Save him! Tsunade and I, and everyone else, all have our hopes pinned on him. You can't let him slip away!"

"I don't intend to." Tayuya said. "He's mine, dammit!"

"Good." Jiraiya gave a wide smile. "I don't have much chakra left, so I'm gonna disappear now. Save what little time I have left in here, you know?"

Before Tayuya could protest, his spirit faded away, but she still heard his voice on the breeze.

"When there's no other way out, I'll be waiting here to help you."

After that, she was left alone with the Sanbi and Naruto's...whatever you could call that withered husk of a soul.

 **"Now, then, child of damnation...I think it's high time that you and I spoke to one another."**

Tayuya was listening.

* * *

"Is it just me, or does Naruto seem unresponsive?" Karin asked. "He hasn't even twitched a finger in the last hour."

"He may be unconscious." Orochimaru said. "I wouldn't be surprised, he hasn't slept in a long time. Between the two of us, he's been safeguarded around the clock...but, if he really can't hear, then I suppose it's alright to ask those questions you've had on your mind."

Karin's hackles rose, anxiety and animosity mixing together with the shame of being read so easily.

"I just...I don't understand. Why involve me in this project, first of all? He's my family. Even if we're not closely related, we're still from the same clan. Surely you know what that does to me...what it would do to anybody."

"Of course." The reply was blunt. Orochimaru had no intention of pulling punches.

"Then why?"

"You're one of the most intelligent people serving under me, possibly even more than I am. I don't trust Kabuto with as much information as he likes to think, given the risks of a nukenin's lifestyle, and you have the moral compass needed to keep Naruto-kun from breaking...don't think I haven't seen you going easy on him."

Karin turned her head aside, looking down at the desk where she sat. She should have known that he would figure it out; Orochimaru wasn't labeled as a genius for no reason.

"I'm sor-" Karin began to apologize, but Orochimaru shook his head to cut her off.

"No, an apology is unnecessary. I told you that I would be putting you in charge, didn't I? Your discretion in this matter is more important than mine."

"But, why him?" She asked. "Why does it have to be me, and why did it have to be him?"

"Naruto-kun, due to his lineage and his status as a Jinchuriki..he's less of a human, and more of a force of nature. Caught somewhere between monster and man, if you prefer it to be said that way. The Rikudo Sennin's elder brother had several children, but none of them flourished like the Uzumaki...and none but the Uzumaki remain, as well."

Orochimaru wasn't going to bother counting Higurashi, given that he had no claimable blood-children. The Jie line would live on, but only in silence and darkness. That, he was determined, wouldn't happen with Karin's family tree.

Perhaps it was strange, even wrong, to care so much...not that it would be interpreted as caring. To most, it would probably seem to be little more than another passing obsession for the madman who'd abandoned his country. That wasn't the case.

Naruto was the kind of person who made the world tremble as he walked. Jiraiya, Tsunade...all of Konoha, it seemed, had placed their hopes on his shoulders. Since the night of the Kyuubi's attack, not much more than seventeen years ago, it had been Naruto's destiny to serve and protect Konoha. Those scars he bore, that the Kyuubi apparently refused to heal, were proof enough of that fact.

Orochimaru wanted to know what everyone had seen in the blond boy. He wanted to understand why Naruto, more than any prodigy that the village had produced in its lifetime, was the inheritor of the Will of Fire.

Even now, though he was unconscious, the flame within him burned far brighter than the flame without. He could not be broken through torture; it had taken two months to learn that fact. Rather, the thing that twisted his conscience most was love. Perhaps it was from growing up an orphan and a street urchin, and the thirst had never left his throat.

Naruto was a child who hungered for acceptance, who yearned for the love that he knew he'd never receive. Each time, he'd sought to fill the void through bonds of friendship: building a family of street rats among Konoha's outcast children, his sibling-like closeness with the members of his Genin team, and even his relationship with Tayuya.

Fate was cruel to Uzumaki Naruto. It didn't matter what he did, as Murphy's Law seemed to take perpetual effect. Despite his status as _Ta'veren,_ a person who bent fate around them like thread around a spool, it seemed that only negative reactions came to him as a result. Or, perhaps that was just a trait passed down from both sides of his family; the dead gods knew Tsunade's awful luck, and the end of the Uzumaki clan had certainly been less than heroic. Kushina and Minato's deaths, tragic as they were, had set the tone of Naruto's life: anyone close to him would be destroyed.

A lonely child. A cursed child.

Orochimaru was beginning to understand.

* * *

"I'm going to assume that you've already heard the news." Nagato said, looking at Konan with a weary pain in his eyes.

His forced neutrality, on the position of Jiraiya's death, was eating away at him. Konan was in far worse shape; her heart had belonged to him, her one and only. She didn't look like she'd slept in the days since she'd found out, and she barely spoke.

That didn't stop him from embracing her, his tight-gripping hug anchoring her as her legs gave out. She wept openly, sobs wracking her chest as she rested her forehead against Nagato's shoulder. He held her there for a long time, his arms relaxing around her as her hiccuping breaths slowly began to regulate again.

Nagato doubted that she would ever, truly, recover from this. Practically since the day she'd met him, Konan had held an infatuation with her sensei that had been neither appropriate nor dispersable.

As the years had gone on, she'd been unable to resist the temptation of her own fantasies...one night, trapping him with the _Kamiton_ that she would go on to master, she'd forced herself upon him. Insistent on not bringing any harm to the children he'd vowed to protect, he hadn't resisted.

The fact that Jiraiya didn't force her to stop had only encouraged Konan, until she had finally reached an age where their actions were only eye-raising, not illicit. It would hardly be the first time that a man near his thirties had been seduced by a woman ten years his junior.

"It's okay. It's going to be okay." Nagato whispered.

"No it's not." There was violence in Konan's voice. She drew back, looking him in the eye, and Nagato saw her determination.

"Are you planning on starting a war with Konoha? You know we can't afford that. Now, least of all."

"I'm not going to start anything." She smirked, though the visual effect was ruined by running makeup and a mucus trail that ran down from her nose.

"I won't be there to help you. I'm hunting Orochimaru, remember?"

"I know." She replied. "Iwa and Kumo have started moving soldiers to destroy Konoha."

She knew that Nagato had no goodwill in his heart for those villages, or anyone from them. As Pein, he was a figure whose position as a mercenary forced him to remain heartless in the face of political evils and wartime atrocities. Particularly those committed by and against the various hidden villages, except Amegakure. As Uzumaki Nagato, however, the mere mention of Iwagakure or Kumogakure was enough to make his blood boil. Kirigakure had undergone its revolution, they were a changed people now, but the other perpetrators of his clan's massacre had yet to answer with their own lives.

He would let Konan have the satisfaction of killing those who had let Jiraiya die. Then, with Kumo and Iwa weakened, it would be child's play to convince Suna to strike Iwa. They hardly required a reason, but the massacre of Konoha would be plenty enough to force the Kazekage's hand.

From there, Kiri and the various minor nations could be roused to oust Kumo. Then, finally, the Uzumaki clan would have its blood-soaked vengeance. The Rokubi Jinchuriki could be killed in battle, and his Biju sealed away while nobody paid attention. One by one, the pieces would fall into place, until the time had arrived for Nagato to create a pristine world of peace.

Peace could not be achieved by unsteady alliances, or a continuation of the shinobi lifestyle's subterfuge. It required people who were equal on all footings, who understood the depths of one another's pains. Nagato was unafraid to die a martyr, if it meant that the pain he inspired in people could cause them to band together. In the unity of their suffering, they would form bonds that they were unwilling to break. In choosing their newfound oneness, rather than sinking to their grief-bound urges and causing further harm, they could forge a world where none needed to fear betrayal. In a world without betrayal, there would be no war.

It all hinged on the belief that society would be stronger than the individuals who might otherwise succumb to their lesser desires.

Nagato chose to believe.


	53. Daytime Watch

**I'm still kicking. Sort of. It's 5 AM, so I don't know what in the fuck I'm doing awake, but since I finished another chapter...have at it. This chapter is basically filler, though it's doing something for characterization.**

 **OneLunchMan, where are you? You've missed two chapters now, and I've missed those two reviews.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. RedCide47: Is it ridiculous? As I said in an earlier chapter, and as relatively supported by canon, Orochimaru's loyalty isn't to nations; it's to people. I've debated on how I want to end this particular stretch, but we'll see. Maybe you'll be surprised.**

 **2\. Drake Vallion: Well, as NERV's slogan in NGE goes, "God's in his heaven, all's right with the world." But god wasn't the antagonist of that series, now, was he? It was his _angels._**

 **3\. Guest: Remember when I said in an AN, back at chapter 47, that I could probably stretch this arc out for fifty chapters, if I wanted? Just to spite people who complained about its length so far?**

 **4\. Noahendless: That's pretty high praise. Thanks!**

 **5\. KingKitsuneDeath: What am I going to do with them? Well, at the moment, there's actually only three; one by Tayuya, one by Izumi (Maya), and one by Hinata. Orochimaru mentioned something about having Karin provide genetic material to make one, but that didn't actually happen. As for the "Sound Three," well, they may be Naruto's bodyguards, or they may safeguard something even _more_ important...**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"Tayuya. Tayuya. Are you okay?" Tenten put a hand on the redhead's stomach, intending for the pressure to wake her up.

Instead, she had to pull her hand back as malignant chakra tried to burn her tenketsu.

"Neji, what's going on?"

"There's chakra surrounding her body, coming out from a seal on her stomach...like Naruto." The stoic Hyuuga replied.

"The Sanbi." Yugito said, as attention turned to her. "Tayuya was near death when Naruto killed Yagura, so they took the Sanbi from his corpse and sealed it into Tayuya. It realigned her tenketsu and her chakra pathways by force, so that they could handle a Biju's chakra, and healed her injuries. It's the only known way to revive someone who's about to die, something beyond any medic's capabilities."

"Even Tsunade?" Sakura asked.

Sakura still didn't believe that Tsunade or Jiraiya could actually be dead. They were the Sannin, and if Orochimaru was still alive, then they had to be too! Good always defeated evil, didn't it? That was why they would win. They would get Naruto back. As long as she remained on the path of moral uprightness, as long as she was a good person, the world would pay her back. Right?

"Yes, even Tsunade." Yugito answered. "She's legendary, regarded as the most skilled med-nin in the world as well as the strongest of all kunoichi...but she's not a goddess. Just another human, like anyone else."

"I think we're getting distracted from the point." Sai reminded them, looking down at Tayuya's unconscious form. "How do we wake her?"

"That's a difficult thing to do. She's talking with the Sanbi now, so either she'll leave the seal herself, or the Sanbi will send her away." Yugito said. "At best, someone will carry her until we reach our destination, a place that only she knows the location of. At worst, we just make camp here and wait for her to wake up. We're far enough from Kumo that we shouldn't have to worry about anyone finding us for two or three days...though, I guess I'm a nukenin now."

"Only Naruto would be able to make someone pull that." Sasuke laughed. "Hell, he's not even here right now, and he still made you betray your village for him."

"Troublesome." Shikamaru grumbled. "When this started, we were all just AWOL from our families and village, because we thought it'd be an easy retrieval. Or, at least, as easy as a pseudo-war against an S-ranked ninja with a mercenary army could be. Now we've got a multi-village coalition with us that includes a would-be Swordsman of the Mist, a fake oinin, and a nukenin Jinchuriki. Plus a rogue Anbu who decided that his teammate was more important than his chain of command."

"I understood exactly half of those words." Kiba glared. "You're not just trying to sound smart because you wanna piss me off, are you?"

"Yeah, dog-breath, like you'd win." Ino smirked. "Brains over brawn, all day, every day!"

"Let's stop here for the day. If Kumo manages to catch up with us, we have enough people that we can match them." Chojuro said. "Hopefully."

The sun had risen. This early in the morning, as dawn broke across Kaminari no Kuni, their decision had been made. They would travel when night fell, if Tayuya was awake by then.

* * *

"So...why is everyone here?" Yugito asked. "I mean, I guess I get that Naruto is a likable guy. Tayuya's lucky he's got such good self-restraint, or else he'd probably have let half the women in the world jump his bones. The dead gods know I would've."

Yugito smirked after that proclamation, as she saw the faces around her. Sakura's eyes bugged, and Sasuke looked down to avoid eye contact with anyone. Ino grinned in what seemed to be agreement, and Kiba shook his head with no small amount of laughter. Kankuro just raised an eyebrow.

"Nah, it's more like Tayuya's the reason he's got such great control over himself. Can you imagine what kind of torture techniques someone who worked for Orochimaru might know?" Kiba said, finishing his laughter. "God, if she ever caught him cheating, I'd be worried about the state of Konoha. Can't exactly become Hokage after your ex cuts off your dick, huh?"

"Sounds about right." Kankuro seconded. "Naruto and my little brother are like two sides of the same coin, they've both got that loneliness in them that just makes them want to be accepted and loved. It'd be easy as hell for him to just fall in love with whatever girl he sees, and given how strong he is..."

"Hey, what's wrong with that? Some girls like a big, strong man. Someone who's not afraid to be sensitive one minute, and the next he'd have me bent over a bed and started reaming me like it was his mission in life." Ino stopped talking, her eyes half-lidded as she drowned further in that fantasy.

"Well, it started with a mission." Sasuke started. "Sai, Tayuya, Sakura and I, along with Neji and Hinata, were sent on a mission with Naruto to snuff out a lot of Orochimaru's minor hideouts. It was meant as an easy, long-term field mission that would show Naruto's capability as a field commander. We made it about...six months? Something like that. Six months in, we got bold, and we tried to take out one of Orochimaru's main bases. Unlucky for us, Orochimaru was actually in that base...along with a few hundred of his experimental captives. We'd split up, and Naruto sent us to help Neji and Hinata escape. We thought he was going to go full-tilt and wipe Orochimaru out, but..."

"...he destroyed the base instead, after we got out." Sakura finished. "Made it collapse in on the two of them. I don't know if he really thought that would kill Orochimaru, but he definitely did it so that we could get away safely. Once we got back to Konoha, Sai and Tayuya were planning to go alone to rescue him, but the rest of us wouldn't let that happen. We all slipped out one night, made it to Kiri, and then came to Kumo. And, now, we're here."

"Yeah, 'cause we spent two fuckin' months on a boat with that goddamn maniac." Kiba growled. "Expert sailor, my ass. We were out far enough to see fucking _whales._ "

"Kiba, you didn't even know what a whale was. For all you know, Haku was being nice and we actually passed by a shark that was bigger than our boat." Sakura smirked. "The only reason you weren't our class' dead last is because Naruto was there for the third year in a row."

"Wait, wait, hold on a minute." Kankuro said, preventing Kiba from retorting. "You're telling me that Tsunade sent a Jinchuriki, the last loyal Uchiha, her own apprentice, the Hyuuga clan heiress, and the Hyuuga prodigy, on a mission that could have...and did...bring you all into contact with one of the most notorious nukenin your village ever kicked out? That's _beyond_ stupid."

"Naruto was the one who got to pick the team." Sasuke said. "He wanted all of us on-board, we're well-rounded together."

"The Hokage should have overridden him, then." Yugito shot back. "It's true that when you have that much firepower, you'll be operating as a force to be reckoned with, but that's putting way too many eggs in one basket. Either way, the buck stops with her, and she endangered far too many people. The fact that only one of you got captured is a miracle."

"It shouldn't have been Naruto. Out of all of us, he was the only one who could've stood a chance..." Sakura trailed.

The rest of their watch was spent in an eerie, mildly uncomfortable silence, while they waited for Tayuya to regain consciousness.

* * *

"Hinata-san." Sai asked, the Hyuuga heiress looking more withdrawn than usual.

"Sai?"

"Are you alright?"

"I-I'm...tired. Of this. Tired of the running, of t-trying to save Naruto-kun. That doesn't mean I don't want him to be rescued! I just..."

"Is it about your father?"

Hinata looked up, a scowl on her face that quickly dissolved into a mute, sullen frown. Nearing tears, she looked in desperate need of pity. Or a helping hand.

Sai was no good with pity, anyway.

"I'm sorry." It was all that he could offer.

"I'm n-not so sad as I am w-worried...Hanabi-chan is still there, with the clan elders, and I-"

Hinata was surprised when his arms wound around her, wrapping her into a hug. She wasn't used to physical affection; nobody in her life had ever seen the need, or felt the desire, to give her any.

"It's going to be okay. Once we find Taicho, we'll return home, and you can reform your clan."

"D-do you really think so?"

Despite his smile's falsity, and her knowledge of its farce, Hinata couldn't help drawing strength from his assurance.

"Of course I do." The words didn't feel forced. "Nobody but Taicho can become the next Hokage."

That sentence made Hinata crack a small smile, though her uncertainty would have been plain to anyone who saw her. Technically, _anybody_ could become the next Hokage, as long as they were accepted by both the Council of Clans and the previous Hokage. That was one reason why Konoha had always fostered the virtues of cooperation and friendship among its ninja; someone without political allies, no matter how strong they were, or how much they loved the village, would never become the Hokage.

It was what made everyone so sure that Naruto would fit the bill, after all: he shared a blood tie with the Godaime, given her Uzumaki grandmother, which also linked him to the Shodaime and the Nidaime. He'd been an apprentice to Jiraiya, who taught the Yondaime and been taught by the Sandaime. In some way or another, he had a reason to emulate any of the five previous Hokage, by becoming the Rokudaime.

When you added his constant cheeriness, his skill as a shinobi, and the fact that plenty of Konoha's more elite ninja respected him, it made him a clear candidate for the office. That constant smiling had been what drew Hinata to him, after all.

Still...in his absence, as well as his relationship with Tayuya, she'd realized that she needed to move her affections toward someone who could return them. Sai was that person. It would take time, but she was willing to give him all the time he needed; anything was better than the Hyuuga elders' attempts to make her marry Neji.

* * *

"Tenten." Higurashi announced his presence to his daughter, his footsteps going unheard despite his armor.

"Father!" The twin-bun-touting girl exclaimed. "Wait, what are you doing out here? I thought you'd be at home. I was worried about you!"

"Me?" Higurashi nearly laughed. "By the dead gods...no, you've been in far more danger than I. How did you all manage to escape Kumo unscathed?"

"One of their Jounin is a friend of Naruto's. I think. She gave us warning and got us out, and now she's just assumed that she'll be labeled a nukenin, even though there's no guarantee that they know she's dead."

"Well, either way...you know what I'm about to say, don't you?"

Of course she did. She'd grown up in his home, spent more than a decade under his roof as she learned how to make and wield weapons. She knew her adopted clan's way of life.

"I owe her _toh._ A life-debt. She, an enemy, saved me from being captured or killed by her allies."

"That's right."

Temari walked around their camp's perimiter, and saw the pair. While she was on guard, unfamiliar with Higurashi, she also knew who he was.

"Hey...Tenten, what's your father doing here?"

"I don't...uh, I don't actually know. What _are_ you doing here?"

"Well, it all started with that little letter you left me. I packed up all of my important weapons, I put on my armor, and I left. I didn't manage to catch up with you by the time that ship left the beach, but I delayed the Anbu team that was trying to retrieve you. They tried to attack me for insubordination, and I incapacitated them. Ever since, I've been moving around the nations and eliminating various...unsavory professionals. Mostly highwaymen, and your generic outlaw rabble, but there was more than one group of slavers, and a few minor nukenin."

"But why are you here with us?" Tenten asked her father.

"Well, you're trying to rescue Naruto, aren't you?" Higurashi raised an eyebrow, though it came down at both girls' assenting nods. "Well, why shouldn't I join that cause?"

"Haven't you heard about what happened in Konoha?" Temari questioned.

"Of course I have...but I've been gone for months now. They've noticed my absence, surely. If I returned now, what would they say or do? Congratulate me for avoiding the civil war? Of course not. They'd lock me up, feed the key to that miniature boar that Shizune keeps on herself at all times, and let me waste away what little time I have left. If I'm going to do something, then now is the time. I owe this world _toh,_ because when all the rest of my family died, I lived on. I hated the fact that I was the last of my clan. I hated the world for that fate."

Higurashi paused for a moment, letting the words sink in before he continued.

"But then, one night, a little blond boy and an even smaller girl walked into my life. I made an honest living as a merchant, since my shinobi days were done, but I only had the money to raise one child between the two of you. The boy looked like he had promise. His eyes were hungry, he wanted strength more than he wanted food. Even at that young, he knew power granted recognition, and recognition meant friendship. He wanted acceptance above anything else, even warmth or love. And then, he insisted I take the girl into my home instead. He sacrificed his future for you, Tenten...and he gave me a daughter, that night, when he left and you stayed. Both of our fates are bound to his own. Can you not feel it in your blood?"

Tenten thought that she could, in a way. It was the same way she'd felt when Naruto had led her to that house, and how he'd always stopped by at least once a week, every week of every year. Even after she surpassed him in the academy and graduated before him, he'd still come to visit the girl he considered his little sister.

Temari was content to stay in the background of the conversation, listening to her one-time opponent's father speak.

"I don't know that I'll live to see my next birthday. In fact, I count on being dead before then. For that boy who's my son, regardless of how he calls it, I'll gladly give up my life. The debt I owe him can only be repaid with something equally large."

"What, you're predicting your own death, now? That's a bit morbid, even for a fatalist like you."

"The dragon will ride again."

That was all the response Tenten would get out of her adopted father.

* * *

 **"Is there anything else you would like to know, child of damnation?"**

"Why do you keep calling me that? I have a name. Is that not good enough?"

Tayuya wasn't angry, just confused. The apparition of Naruto was no longer in her arms, instead attempting to worm his way back to the ocean behind her, but she was too invested in the conversation she'd been holding with the Sanbi.

 **"It is your title, Tayuya. Your title among the walkers of time, if you must ask for precision. You are the herald of devastation, for yourself and others."**

"And Naruto?"

 **"Your...I do not know the human term for a bonded mate, though my sibling's host is yours. Regardless, he is one of _many_ names. The cursed child, the breaker of destiny, the master of demons, and the one whose sight will bring this world to its knees. If that strange ascetic was right, all those years ago, then he is the manifest of the elder brother, and it will be his fate to clash against the son of destiny for the right to bring about a new era."**

"The son of destiny?"

 **"That is the name we know him by. Kurama refers to him as 'the oathbreaker,' or, 'the tree-burner.' You humans have another name for him, however...you call him Madara."**

"Madara? Are you serious? He's been dead for...fuck, almost a century!"

 **"He is the son of destiny. When the proper time and place arrive, the sage's inheritor will come again in glory, to judge the living and the dead. He was beloved by the gods, as they believed him to be the harbinger of their new life beyond their deaths at Kurama's hand...but my sibling has felt that holy chakra, and there is a darkness in the son of destiny that no truly god-blessed man could have. He and your bonded mate are fated enemies, no matter the distance of time or space between their births."**

The ocean's waves rolled in, and Tayuya could swear that the sun was laughing at her...but that great blue ball in the sky couldn't be the sun. Could it, in this seal-world? It looked far too familiar to her, its deep hue much richer than the sky's paler shade.

"Ugh...goddamn. Okay, enough of this, I'm gonna leave now."

With a plume of smoke, Tayuya was gone from her seal.

 **"You never cease your meddling, do you, Isobu?"** A bodiless voice asked, across the distance of an eternal void.

 **"In Makai, we called you a scatterbrained librarian, Antal Dara...you see so much, you reside in all times and places and yet, with all your sight, you cannot look to find your own hypocrisy. Get ye gone from this prison, you disaster of a corpse."**

Boundless laughter echoed in the halls of the seal-world that had been constructed by the Sanbi.

 **"The dead cannot claim me."** The voice responded. **"Would you like me to tell you how it ends?"**

 **"Absolutely not. I want nothing to spoil the moment when I watch Kurama consume your soul and drink from the fount of your power. You dared to call us forth from hell, and broke the contract. It was my siblings' heroism that released us all from the yoke of your oppression, and when you finally die...at last, we will be free to return home."**

The Sanbi felt the god's presence fade from its awareness, and woke its host.


	54. The Gathering Storm

**I'm sorry about the wait, everyone. A close, old friend of mine died a few days ago, and I was trying to write while dealing with that, and it didn't turn out great. That having been said...please, if any of you are ever feeling suicidal, talk to someone. Talk to me, if you need to. If there's anything I learned from my life, from years of fighting and learning how to read a situation, it's that there's always another way out. A day will come when you realize that hey, it was a good idea not to kill yourself.**

 **I just wish she'd been able to see that day. Her funeral was yesterday afternoon.**

 **Live your lives with abandon, don't be constrained by the circumstances that the world tries to force on you. The speed limit is whatever speed you go, and even a broken creation is still something you made, worth celebrating.**

 **That's the kind of message Mac would want me to pass on to everyone.**

 **Now, I think it's time for some review responses.**

 **1\. Noahendless: I'm trying. Maybe this fic, even though I've felt like my style has remained consistent throughout, will be an example of how writing improves naturally over time?**

 **2\. tastybigsexy: The ball is in their court, and I tell you what, after this chapter I think you'll agree that they're setting up for a grand slam. Bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, three balls and two strikes and two outs...or maybe that Detroit/Green Bay game last season where Aaron Rodgers threw a last-second Hail Mary for a touchdown? Or, hell, Cleveland coming back from an 0-3 deficit to win the championship. Whatever example you're gonna use, they're gonna make it to the finish line.**

 **3\. Drake Vallion: I can picture it. Isobu just screaming, _"THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE SEAL! GET THE FUCK OUT!"_**

 **This chapter is dedicated to the memory of MacGregor, my delinquent-in-arms, the Mac to my cheese, and a brilliant woman all around. Mac, you'd probably find it silly, but hey, you were an art student. This is my art.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

Naruto had finally discovered a way to slowly, painfully, bypass the machine he'd been strapped into for so long. It would take an inordinate amount of time, but by pulling in natural energy, he could preserve a small portion of his chakra. The amount was far below the point of being relevant, given that he'd been drained of all he had, but a slow recovery was better than no recovery at all.

He kept it from circulating, leaving it trapped in the soles of his feet, where the machine had a difficult time reaching. As days passed, and his chakra grew to a more manageable level, he began circulating it to stimulate his muscles. Privately, he thought that Rock Lee really had to be suffering, given that he couldn't work his muscles out through chakra use.

The bowl cut-bearing, "Noble Beast," always took it in stride, though. Everything was just a challenge to be overcome. Naruto was trying to look at his life in the same way.

It was difficult, but he was managing it slowly. If he thought about it as a test of his abilities, then he would succeed. Blind, without chakra, he was trapped inside an enemy base whose location was unknown. His goal was to gather his chakra back, and wait for the chance to break free. Not that he'd wait for long; now that he'd lost once to Orochimaru, he knew that he wouldn't lose again.

 _Less of a human, and more of a force of nature, huh?_ He thought to himself, remembering the White Snake's words.

Orochimaru wasn't exactly wrong, either; Naruto's chakra stores were massive and potent, due to his Uzumaki and Senju heritage. During his mother's pregnancy, he had been shaped by the Kyuubi's chakra before his tenketsu had formed, and it had been evident in his personality before he'd become looked up to by the rest of Konoha. Then, the demon was sealed inside of him just minutes after birth; adding its reserves to his own gave him the strongest, and the most, chakra of anyone on earth. He was no demon, but he was certainly a cut above most other shinobi.

Idly, Naruto's mind wandered to his arms and legs. Some of his muscle definition was returning. His perfect stillness, necessary for gathering natural energy, had paid off every time he heard Orochimaru speak, with Karin or someone else.

With some of his chakra back, he'd also managed to recognize the tense sensation that appeared in the back of his mind: the Uzumaki spiral that had appeared, when Tayuya lost her cursed seal, acted as a tether between them. She was far away...very far away. At a regular pace, it felt like the distance between them might be between five days to a week. She was to the northeast.

That meant she was in Kaminari no Kuni, and he was in Hi no Kuni. Konoha was less than a day away, almost directly west.

If he could just get free, then he would be gone before anyone could tell...but it was too soon to truly plot an escape.

Naruto had never been patient, but he would have to wait.

* * *

Tayuya rose quickly when she finally woke, as the sun was low in the western sky. She was the last one awake.

"Oh, good, you're up." Sakura said with a smile. "We were ready to get moving."

"Are you alright?" Tenten asked. "You've been out for three days."

"Yeah, I'm fine." Tayuya replied. "And...hold on a second."

Channeling chakra through her fingers, Tayuya laid a hand on the spiral at her neck...and she felt him. That warmth, that she'd been missing for so long, was present again. She could have cried for joy.

"I know where he is." She announced. "Who's ready to go back home?"

"The overlay from the sealing?" Oboro asked, putting the pieces together in her head. "I didn't realize it could have that effect."

"Neither did I, actually. The Sanbi told me about it."

The lie would go unnoticed by everyone except Yugito, Tayuya realized, and the blonde shot her a look that said, _we're going to talk about this later._

Tayuya didn't care.

"Rei, Kouga, how fast can you two go? Think you can keep up at our fastest?"

The twins looked at each other, almost seeming to express disbelief at their "onee-chan" and her lack of faith in them.

"Of course we can. We're ten years old now, we can do whatever you can!" Rei said authoritatively.

"We're Uzumaki, just like Naruto-onii. He's the clan head and our ace, but you'll eat my dust if you want to race!" Kouga grinned with the rhymes.

"Well, what're we waiting for?" Kiba asked. "Let's go!"

With that, they were off again, and Tayuya was at the head of the pack. Sai and Oboro flanked her, with the twin children at her back. Temari and Kankuro flew on the eldest Suna sibling's giant war fan, and the puppeteer grinned as he wrote a letter for his little brother.

Days ago, they'd all felt like their quest would never end. Now, though, they had a direction to head. They knew where their target was, and as long as Naruto still lived, they would be able to rescue him.

And they all knew, better than anyone else on earth, that Uzumaki Naruto couldn't die. They could hit him, they could make him bleed, they could scar him beyond recognition...but it was death that had brought Naruto into the world, and death couldn't take its prodigal son.

With that knowledge in mind, they ran as fast as they could. It wouldn't take long, at top speed, to reach Orochimaru's base in Hi no Kuni.

* * *

"The Hachibi's sealing is finished." Nagato announced, as Kirabi's corpse fell to the ground.

It had taken too long, in his opinion, but thanks to a lack of the Rikudo Pein's usage, he could contribute a far larger portion of chakra than normal. He and Kisame had done the bulk of the sealing work.

Something about Itachi bothered him, and it absolutely had something to do with the new pattern of his eyes.

"Itachi."

 _"Yes?"_ He said, staring Nagato down.

"Would you mind explaining?"

 _"A gift from the Senju. Why? Are you disappointed that you're no longer their sole bearer?"_

There was a ring of truth to that barb; the Rinnegan carried a certain weight to it, more than either of the other "Noble Eyes." It didn't carry the worldly sight of the Byakugan, nor the predictive and mirroring abilities of the Sharingan. It also didn't carry the violent stigma attached to the Mangekyou Sharingan, with the popular myth requiring that one needed to kill their best friend in order to gain it.

The Rinnegan was the most powerful of the three, though far from invincible. With the Mangekyou, at the tender age of thirteen, Itachi had been powerful enough to take down three hundred Uchiha. The Rikudo Pein would likely have suffered a narrow loss to him, but perhaps that was an overestimation of the Uchiha's skills; Nagato preferred to err on the side of caution, when possible.

Now that Itachi had the Rinnegan, though, Nagato wondered just how well-matched the two of them were in single combat. He would hate to find out.

As the apparition of the Kinslayer vanished, Nagato collected his thoughts.

"Zetsu, send the Raikage his brother back, with my regards."

The omnipresent vegetable-man nodded, taking the body with him as he sank into the earth.

Internally, Nagato hoped that the E wouldn't receive a body that was missing a limb or two. He wanted to send a strong message, not a crooked one. What he didn't see, however, was the two-toned flytrap carving Konoha's sigil into Kirabi's belly, where the Hachibi's seal had been.

A strong message, indeed.

With that out of the way, Nagato's gaze turned northeast, to the chakra receiver he'd hidden in the Aburame boy's pocket. They were moving quickly, and he could intercept them with relative ease. Truth be told, their deaths would be easy to orchestrate, but that almost seemed counter-intuitive to his plan. He did not know fate, but he understood that the son-that-was-not was crucial to the destiny of the world.

All Uzumaki, it seemed, were strugglers. Those who rose to challenge their lot in life, and what had been planned for them. No matter the hardship, regardless of cost, the clan endured and returned.

As Pein, it was his duty to be Naruto's sworn enemy, to fight against one another for the destiny of the Kyuubi and the Nagato, it was his duty to aid Naruto on the path to success. They were clansmen, blood brothers, and a war between them was against the laws of the clan.

Konan would aid Kumo and Iwa in Konoha's destruction. He wouldn't turn against her, despite his feelings toward those villages. She would charge at him, head on, regardless of their history; there would be nobody for her except their sensei, Jiraiya.

With a heavy heart, as he left the _Gedo Mazo_ where it lay, he wished that the rain god could have wept.

* * *

E couldn't believe what he saw in front of him.

His brother's lifeless body, with the leaf sigil of Konoha etched into his stomach...and the Hachibi's seal missing.

"So, they're in league, are they?" The muscle-laden Raikage scowled, nothing but hate in his eyes. "Alright then. If that's how it is...so be it."

Shi, Darui, and Mabui were watching. He couldn't break under their scrutiny. He had to be strong.

In a situation like this, Kirabi was ninja first, Jinchuriki second, and only after those was he E's brother. The Raikage did not mourn, publically, each shinobi that died under his reign.

Instead, there would be retaliation. Violence was the only recourse available; the Akatsuki might have killed his brother, and the Hachibi was certainly gone from the corpse, but it was the children from Konoha who'd fled in the night...and it was the children from Konoha that Kirabi had been sent to retrieve. Whether or not they were purposefully working together, they were both at fault.

Then, there was the matter of Yugito. Either she'd been captured and the Akatsuki was extracting her Biju, she was already dead, or she'd betrayed Kumogakure for those children and the Uzumaki. The safest course of action would be to label her as a nukenin, and one way or another, he would get the body and the Nibi back...unless she'd fallen into the Akatsuki's grasp as well, in which case the point was moot.

It would make them easy pickings for anyone who was willing, so he couldn't devote as many ninja as he would have liked to the joint assault on Konoha with Iwa. But, if he sent a disproportionately small number of shinobi, then Onoki would take it as an insult. He would end up demanding recompense that E didn't have available, leading to a war that would be close-run, even on both sides. But if he sent too many, even as a sign of good faith toward the Tsuchikage, Kumogakure would be heavily under-manned...but Kirabi's death demanded vengeance.

"Shi, Darui, spread the word. We're committing eighty percent of our forces to the assault on Konoha."

"Eighty?" Both Jounin pulled back with wide eyes at the proclamation.

"E-dono, isn't that a bit excessive?" Mabui asked.

"Look at my brother. Look at him! Gods...any second now, it feels like he'll jump up and start rhyming his ass off, just to fuck with me...but he won't. He's dead. He went after the children from Konoha, and either they're working with the Akatsuki or they got ambushed too. Either way, I can't sit back and allow this! Our Hachibi Jinchuriki is dead, the Nibi Jinchuriki is missing! Without them to aid us...our only hope is to crush the enemies we can blame, and leave enough of our allies here that we can defend ourselves in the event of an attack."

There could be no retreat anymore. Not with his brother dead. Not with the retrieval party dead. Not with Yugito's status unknown.

Not with the killer still alive and well.

* * *

The word of E's brutal tactic spread quickly, and within an hour, a great white bird flew away from the other side of Kumogakure's mountain-made walls.

Deidara grinned to himself. Pein, and all the others, would want to hear about this. Using his ring as a conduit, he performed the jutsu that sent his apparition into the location of the _Gedo Mazo._ The jutsu set off an alarm in the other members' rings, and once they'd gathered, he broke the news to them.

 _"Deidara, Sasori, Maya and Itachi...the four of you will destroy Kumogakure. I'm sure that between the four of you, a hundred low-ranked ninja and an army of civilians will prove no threat. Konan, continue to look for replacements for Hidan and Tobi's rings. I'm going to pay a visit to an old friend of ours..."_

 _"Make sure Orochimaru suffers."_ Sasori said with a deep growl.

Deidara's partner in artistry had been Orochimaru's friend, prior to the bomber's joining and the White Snake's defection. Sasori had been burned particularly hard by the snub, their enmity plain and simple. And you didn't exactly _just_ make an enemy of Sasori; his network of spies and informants was larger than anyone else's, though in the Akatsuki, it was somewhat irrelevant due to Zetsu's nigh-omnipresence. Still, his mind-wiping technique certainly had its uses. One of them was Yakushi Kabuto, Orochimaru's right hand, and the marker that had been placed on him.

It told him exactly where the medic was, and there was a rule of thumb that Sasori followed: if Kabuto was there, then Orochimaru wasn't far away.

 _"Sasori...don't worry about me."_ Pein's monotone rang clearly. _"Orochimaru will know pain."_

Though his body was hidden within the puppet, Deidara knew that his partner would be smiling if he could.

Men were mortal. Objects were breakable.

Gods couldn't die.

Deidara contented himself with his new mission, though he detested the idea of working alongside Itachi or Maya. First, there was the issue of how the Uchiha so cleanly outclassed him, to the point that it defied the idea of equality in an organization of S-ranked nukenin. Second, they had killed Tobi; another Uchiha, or a pretender who'd taken a Sharingan before their deaths...it didn't matter. That kind of disunity was bad for the group as a whole, given that all of them had traitorous natures.

Still, he supposed that it would be a better idea than using any of the others. Kisame and Kakuzu were good in a fight, they could tear through people indiscriminately, but they would still be overrun if the numbers game turned too heavily against them. Zetsu was good at assassinating singular targets, but was worthless in a large-scale conflict.

He'd never seen Pein or Konan fight, but he wasn't sure that he wanted to. He was the newest member of the Akatsuki, and anyone who had the power to hold multiple high-profile deserters and terrorists in check...he didn't want to see them fight. He didn't want to be near the battlefield, regardless of how fantastic the art might become. Anyone who called themselves a god was either completely fucked out of their mind, or they had the skill to back it up.

He heard it, on ready assurance from several of the Akatsuki's members, that Pein had the skill to back it up.

Itachi and Maya it was, then. With a grimace, Deidara ended the jutsu.


	55. Dream-Crushing Calm

**And look whose sorry ass dragged in another chapter. On the table, for chapter 55: we _FINALLY_ _FUCKING_ _MOVE ON._ Goddammit. It feels like I've been writing this shit forever.**

 **All of the complaints along the way made it worth it, though. The people who complain the most are always more fun to annoy.**

 **Thank you, to Noahendless and OneLunchMan, who responded about Mac. It's been a week now, but...it hasn't been easy.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. Drake Vallion: Never let anyone tell you that Deidara was particularly intelligent. I'd even wager that he's the dumbest member of the Akatsuki, though Hidan would give him a run for his money.**

 **2\. Fritter: Well, given the nature of ninja villages as we've seen them in canon, and the whole idea of a black ops force (Anbu) and Ne, I think it's relatively safe to assume that "war" is just what it's called when they're being open about killing each other. There's also the part about the Hyuuga Incident, and canon directly states that Kumo and Konoha were in a war with each other prior to that, that didn't involve the other three Great Nations...both of which could have been under E's tenure, as the Raikage wasn't actually killed as a result of the Hyuuga Incident, in canon. That's not to say that you're wrong, though. He's too reactive for the job, in my opinion.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

E was personally leading Kumo's forces for the assault on Konoha. On the edge of southern Tsuchi no Kuni, they met their allies from Iwa.

Untruthful to his words in the Raikage Tower, he had only brought two-thirds of Kumo's forces with him for the assault. Onoki led a force just as large, and between the two of them, they had more ninja than Konoha would, particularly after they'd gutted and divided their own forces during a civil war.

That lie had been widespread on purpose. E knew spies were listening, and it was practically an invitation for an invasion when you left a village that empty. But with more than two hundred of his ninja left in Kumo, E was confident in his homeland's security.

From here, it was a straight shot south, to Konoha. They would cut through Ame no Kuni, and then enter into Hi no Kuni before smashing right into Konoha's northern gate. He could picture it now: the walls would be painted with blood, the Hokage Monument sent crumbling down. Buildings lit aflame, and chaos in the streets...they would falter. They would fall.

Namikaze Minato was gone. E would never have his vengeance in a rematch. However, the man's last living student had the gall to proclaim his _Chidori_ was the strongest of Raiton techniques. E would make Hatake Kakashi eat those words, and as death swept around him, he would ride the lightning to victory.

Their meeting point was old rubble, abandoned houses and sun-dried skeletons that had been left to rot away years ago. A village that had been destroyed, a little more than a decade ago.

Onoki knew it well. When it had happened, he was shocked; there were no survivors, and the traders who'd gone there had returned with the news. Corpses with kunai wounds at gut height, or stabbed in the back, as though a child had done the deed...Tsuchi no Kuni's own Momochi Zabuza, who'd never been found.

The land was cursed, or so rumors said. Onoki put no faith in those tales, eschewing them for the hard truth: someone with shinobi training, or access to shinobi weapons, had slaughtered a village of civilians indiscriminately. The knowledge left a bitter taste in the Tsuchikage's mouth. War was inevitable, he'd learned that lesson in his youth. No two people would ever fully understand one another, and no two nations would remain allied forever. It was the way of the world, that the next generation would be stronger than the one before.

Onoki had lived to see five generations pass his own, and he had come to a conclusion some time ago: if the Warring Clans period had continued to the present day, then there would be no ninja left. Despite his power, and the weight of his years, the Tsuchikage held no illusions that he was the strongest ninja in the world, or even present in the two-nation army.

"It should take three or four days to reach Konoha from this point." Onoki said.

"Well, there's still daylight left in the sky. We should start going, and cut down on the distance while we can." E responded.

Onoki nodded, and the pair of Kage both gave the order to march.

* * *

"I have news." Danzo announced.

He sat at the Council of Clans with all the rest of its members, and Hyuuga Hanabi was seated where her father had once been. The young girl wasn't one to posture, she held no ambition to take her elder sister's place as the incumbent clan head. That didn't mean she thought the Hyuuga's voice should go unheard in a matter of village security or general affairs.

"And?" Chouza asked.

"First, the tracking seal I've placed on Sai has come back inside of Hi no Kuni's border, where it's active. He, and presumably the rest of their group, are near the capitol. Under ordinary circumstances, this would be the perfect time to send units for retrieval."

"There's a 'but,' there." Aburame Shibi deduced.

"Correct. Iwa and Kumo are marching to attack us, as I speak. There's an estimated six to eight hundred ninja on the move."

"What? That's...they'll crush us!" Hanabi exclaimed.

"Both of Iwagakure's Jinchuriki are with them, but neither of Kumogakure's. Reportedly, the Hachibi's host is dead, and the Nibi host is missing. Given Uzumaki Naruto's status, I feel it's safe to assume that Jiraiya was incorrect about the Akatsuki's timetable. We have three days, assuming that they don't rush themselves. I suggest that we all prepare our defenses, and evacuation plans may prove necessary. I've already sent scrolls to Suna and Kiri asking for aid, but it's not likely that anyone will arrive in time."

"Nobody's going to evacuate." Kakashi said flatly, his hands bridged in front of himself as he sat. "Konoha's victory in the Great Wars came regardless of our alliances, or our enemies. In the first, it was every nation for themselves. In the second, Kumo and Iwa joined together and still couldn't defeat three unallied opponents. In the third, Kiri joined them, Suna allied themselves with us, and we still won."

"That was before the Uchiha were slaughtered." Shikaku countered. "Sinking low enough to accept help from nukenin...what happened to you, Kakashi? You used to be a real stickler for the rules, and even after the war ended, your dedication to your allies was clear. Itachi violated everything we stand for. How can you stop yourself from killing him, let alone work alongside him?"

Kakashi's only response was to look the Nara clan head in the eyes.

"Either way, we need to do something." Tsume said. "We don't have the time to go out and rescue our children, but...we don't have the manpower to repel the assault that's coming for us. What do we do?"

Homura was the one who spoke up, surprising several of the council members.

"We trust in the future." He said. "Konoha is not the Hokage, it's not the ninja...it's the people, as a whole. The Hokage is the trunk of the tree, supporting the branches of the clans and the individual people who are the leaves."

"Ne makes up somewhere between a third and half of our forces." Danzo announced. "Combined, we have somewhere in the realm of five hundred shinobi. We will be outnumbered, but far from overrun. I know the Tsuchikage, his pragmatism will keep him from drawing upon the bulk of his army...it's the Raikage that I'm worried about."

Yotsuki E was known for his hot-headed reactions, but he never did anything meaninglessly. Befitting their nation's element, Kumogakure's ninja were renowned for their agility, their strong-striking offensives, and their tenacious militancy. They would roll in with the speed and force of a thunderstorm, and vanish just as quickly when the battle was done.

The Yondaime Raikage, as his predecessors before him, held a strong grudge toward Konoha. In times of peace, their village gates remained open, but there were no uncertain terms regarding the two villages' relationship: they were enemies.

Danzo had always appreciated that simplicity. It made the question of, "how should we act around them," much easier to answer: you eliminated them, because they were your enemy.

The very bead that had been drawn on them, some within Konoha's walls were beginning to level at Kakashi, and the scarecrow knew it. He cared, just as he knew his father had cared when Konoha had vilified him for prioritizing his comrades over the success of their mission...but history had vindicated Hatake Sakumo, and Kakashi was convinced that it would do the same for him.

Any civilians in Konoha could leave for nearby settlements or cities. Their lives would be relatively undisrupted, given their status as tradesmen and laborers. The same job, and only a different location...but the same couldn't be said of Konoha's ninja. While it was true that they could abandon all ties to the land and flee from the superior force that would swing against them like the hammer on an anvil, nobody would be willing enough to do so. To the last, they would stand and fight for their village and their allies, with the knowledge that they would be avenged. If all deaths were mutual kills, then that would leave Kumo and Iwa with somewhere around half of their former strength.

With their strong ties to Konoha, Suna would sweep into Tsuchi no Kuni and decimate Iwa. Kiri would do the same to Kumo.

A fire's destiny was not to burn forever. That was impossible. But with that dying flame, they could kill and burn their enemies. They could be the light that led to a world that was peaceful, through the devastation of their enemies.

When allies were all that remained, it would be difficult to have war.

That still didn't make it easy to look into the eyes of a child, like Hanabi, and tell her that she would die in a few days' time.

* * *

"Hmm...they're not far. We have a day and a half to prepare." Orochimaru said to himself.

He could feel it, the crushing weight of destiny. Naruto's presence always twisted actions toward fate in one way or another, be it positively or negatively for those around him.

He didn't have the manpower to sustain an invasion, nor did any of his bases possess the vastness to weather the coming assault. He could call it a precognitive gift from his Senjutsu training, or from the dead gods...but Orochimaru knew what was coming. He could feel the eyes of the dead gods' servant boring into his back, the ringed cornea of the Rinnegan prophetically announcing his doom.

Pein would have to try harder than that.

Then, there was the matter of the slowly-breaking machine that was constraining Naruto. It had been designed to mimic Orochimaru's own chakra-draining touch, but machines had their weaknesses. The White Snake was no fool, he knew that it was being circumvented by the natural energy Naruto was gathering. Somewhere along the line, in a year and a half, Naruto had managed to master Senjutsu training.

Still, the last living Sannin's current body would give out before Naruto recovered and was ready for a rematch. However, even if he was running on half-power, that might still be enough to bring Pein down.

The machinations in Orochimaru's brain continued to sprawl. Akatsuki, by nature, was a foil to the village system; while hidden villages allowed everyone the chance to gain power for themselves, the animosity that arose between nations would prevent anything but a cycle of war. Akatsuki, however, placed all the power in the world into the hands of very few people, at the head of which was the man who'd taken for himself the title of _Ame no Kami,_ the God of the Rain.

With his legendary eyes, and the strength to single-handedly slay the army-killer that had been Hanzo, Pein certainly fit the bill for that mantle...but Orochimaru remembered him. He'd seen those eyes before, in Ame no Kuni, on a red-haired boy who'd been saved from death by Jiraiya. He'd seen that same red-haired boy years later, under a _henge,_ as he'd witnessed Hanzo and Danzo enact their plot to destroy the original form of the Akatsuki.

The main body of Pein was nothing more than a reanimated corpse, those piercings acting as a puppeteer's strings. That was why there were so many: it made a total removal impossible.

Nagato would have no mercy, but that was alright. Orochimaru needed none. In fact, if he played his cards right-

He stopped his train of thought there, to laugh ominously, setting several nearby ninja on edge as he walked past.

It would all turn out well, in the end. He was no mere serpent...he was Nidhoggr. He was Hydra. He was legion. As long as any cursed seal survived, the world would never be free of his name...and perhaps he had been wrong. Maybe he never needed the Sharingan in the first place.

* * *

On New Years' Eve, as the Rookie Twelve and the rest of their group entered into the capital of Hi no Kuni, it was snowing. The temperate land wasn't used to cold precipitation, though they were far enough east that they weren't affected by Kaze no Kuni's dry winds. Still, two or three times a year, snowfall could risk piling up high enough to block roads in the northern reaches of the country.

Tayuya was undeterred. She would make her way to the base alone, if she had to. She would fight her way through every last Oto-nin, kill Orochimaru and Kabuto, just for the _thought_ of seeing Naruto again.

A word with the daimyo was enough to secure their rooms for the night, and speaking was kept to a minimum. Now that they were so close, they were anixious to get on with it.

"Good night." They all told one another, but, _"good luck,"_ were the words they meant.

No mission was without its dangers. Death, for all shinobi, was around every corner. Still, they were determined: they would make it through, to the end. They would all see the light of the new day, and it would bring Naruto back to them.

All of them had their ties to Naruto. The Rookie Twelve had grown up with him. Tayuya loved him. Oboro, Rei, and Kouga were his clansmen, as was Sai. Higurashi was his father-figure. Yugito was a fellow Jinchuriki. Temari and Kankuro owed him their lives, and their brother. Haku had befriended him, and fought against him. Even Chojuro was associated by organization; the blue-haired boy was a future member of the Seven Swordsmen, a group whose strongest members were still alive, and both of whom had faced Naruto in battle. In the presumed Rokudaime Hokage, they all had someone to lose.

Tayuya's light sleep went undisturbed, all through the night. The same held true for all the rest of them, though Yugito was plagued by thoughts regarding the decision to abandon her homeland.

She knew that there was no other choice to have taken. It was either warn the group, and forsake Kumogakure, or damn Naruto to his fate as a test subject. Her conscience had forced her hand, no matter the thoughts on a shinobi's emotions or how examples like hers would be used as fodder for sexism. She couldn't afford to worry about her image, in the eyes of an individual or the world.

The dreaming world came slowly for Yugito, but hit her all at once. The same couldn't be said of Neji, who stared at the ceiling as he swore his oath. Just as Naruto had vowed to win their match in the Chunin Exams, two and a half years ago, Neji promised himself that he would free Naruto from his cage.

In Naruto's words and actions, he'd brought Neji freedom. It was time to return the favor.

In the room where Rei and Kouga stayed, they slept deeply, as though drawn to something greater than themselves. In the dream-within-dreaming, blood called to blood, for the father-that-was-not declared his scions and his heirs. Blade to blade, light to light, the Uzumaki blood ran full and strong within those who the Biju knew as the Lost Children. They, as with all their kind, were entities of a single mind. They had been born and bred for one purpose: war. The heart to battle, and the strength to win, was theirs...and now, they raced to save the greatest of their line.

The Jie pair, father and daughter, took the time to polish their blades together. The shared experience was a form of bonding, a release of tension and worry for the events that lay ahead. Tenten had lost her brother once, when he forced her to stay in Higurashi's care. When she found him, she would never let him go again; he was going to become Hokage, _dammit,_ and he would stay cooped up in Konoha where he'd be safe from attack, and he was going to _like it._

After they put their weapons away, as Tenten slept, Higurashi recalled his words to her in the forests of southern Kaminari no Kuni, and another song of his people.

 _Life is a dream that knows no shade.  
_  
 _Life is a dream of pain and woe._  
 _  
A dream from which we pray to wake._  
 _  
A dream from which we wake and go._  
 _  
Who would sleep when the new dawn waits?_  
 _  
Who would sleep when the sweet winds blow?  
_  
 _A dream must end when the new dawn comes._

 _This dream from which we wake and go._

He would wake from the dream, just as his mother had when she gave birth to him. Just as the rest of his kin had, when they met Iwagakure's front line at the battle of the Dead Crag's Pass. He should have been with them, that day. He should have joined his song to theirs, his blood with theirs, his life with theirs. As far as Higurashi was concerned, he was little more than a dead man walking, a corpse that refused to lay down for the last forty years. But without him, there would have been nobody to sing their songs, to forge their weapons, to carry on the way of _jie'toh._

Now, there was another who could fill that mantle. He could stop dancing around the traps in the floorboards. He could finally raise his voice into a battle-scream, and rush headlong into the fight.

 _Do not grieve when I am gone, my child._ He begged of Tenten, in her sleep. She had given his life purpose again. He would give her the greatest gift that he could: a future to walk toward. He owed her that much, at least.

His _toh_ would be fulfilled.


	56. The Storm Unleashed

**I did a chapter that's almost three times as long as normal to make sure that I held up my promise to end this in one chapter. Don't expect many/any more chapters like this...and enjoy it, you glorious bastards.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. Noahendless: Yeah. In branching away from canon, particularly in having denounced most of everything past the Chapter 600 mark in canon, I need to do a good job with developing a world that presents a believable endgame. Characters' actions have more meaning when you know about their past, and their potential future.**

 **2\. XR4PTORxJ3SUSX: Thank you for the compliment! I throw everything I have into my writing. I firmly believe that the only way to improve is to do, and that improvement happens most often when you put 100% of your effort into the work at hand. The praise you've offered up is proof that I'm getting better. Hope you enjoy this chapter just as much!**

 **3\. tastybigsexy: I do not. Many references to various series are present throughout this fic, but the most blatant one is Higurashi's character being based upon the Aiel from Robert Jordan's _Wheel of Time_ series. "Wash the Spears" and "Life is a Dream" are both Aiel songs.**

 **4\. RedCide47: You're right. Here's a _lot_ of action. Enjoy!**

 **5\. Fuyuriku: I won't debate that the story essentially became, "everyone except the Naruto rescue party is effectively dead in the water," and that needed to change, but I also couldn't help wanting to do more and expand on the story. The idea for a Kumo/Iwa assault on Konoha came from a review several chapters back by...I don't remember. Whoops. But, by virtue of always wanting more to read, I try to write more for others to read.**

 **You wouldn't be wrong; character development was the big feature of the last several chapters, more so than plot advancement. I don't seem to have a setting between "fast-paced writing" and "plot progression that a snail could outrace."** **Still, your commentary has been taken into account, and I'll do my best to improve further in the future.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

When morning broke across the capital of Hi no Kuni, nobody was willing to wait any longer. The new-fallen snow was crushed beneath their feet, and a familiar red-haired man intersected their path as they moved.

"Hello again." Nagato said, joining the group. "What did I miss?"

"The seal on my neck acts as a two-way locator with Naruto, that's how I found out he's at the base we're headed towards." Tayuya replied. "What about you? How did you get out of that mess with Kumo?"

Nagato looked at her as if she'd grown a second head, very narrowly avoiding a tree trunk.

"I killed them." His tone was indication enough of how ridiculous he found it, that he had to answer a question like that. "And I'm going to kill Orochimaru, unless you have some objection."

" _Unless I..._ what the hell do you mean-" Tayuya sputtered in sudden anger. "Of _course_ I have a fuckin' objection, you fuckbucket cloud-ass! All that goddamn snake did to you was betray you! He gave me the worst fuckin' years of my life! His ass is mine!"

"Kinky." Kiba's voice came from the back of the group, and Ino smacked him on the back of his head to send him tumbling down.

Akamaru howled with laughter at his master's plight, earning him a derisive look from the Inuzuka heir.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, you mutt. Ain't nobody around here who can take a joke, huh? Why did Naruto cross the road? To get to the other _slide!"_

Nobody laughed.

They continued moving, and as the forest around them got thicker, the Konoha-born among them felt far more at ease.

"One other thing." Nagato said. "Iwa and Kumo are on the warpath against Konoha. Kumo, reportedly, sent more than five hundred ninja for the attack. I don't know that I trust the figure, but still..."

"They'll be crushed. Completely." Sai deadpanned. "How long do we have?"

"Somewhere in the realm of a day. Given how close we are to Konoha, if you rescue Naruto quickly, then you can make it on time. But would you really want to?"

"It'd be a fanatical suicide." Neji said. "But better than dying alone, isn't it? A doomed last stand that will live on in song and memory."

"I-I...I don't think so, nii-san." Hinata said. "Wouldn't it be better to live?"

"Honor the sacrifice, and avenge them when you can." Shino nodded to himself. "Isn't that what we've been doing, all this time that we've chased after Naruto?"

" _Mendokuse_. I don't need this philosophical stuff, it's way too early to be thinking hard."

"Shikamaru, shut up before I shove a mackerel down your throat." Sakura threatened. Raising a fist, she continued. "This is mackerel."

"Goddamn, woman, calm down. Aren't you supposed to be the voice of reason on your team?"

"Our team had Naruto. There was no such thing as reason." Sasuke said.

The trees were beginning to thin out again, a sign that they were approaching their destination. With grim determination, Tayuya pressed on, hastening her pace and forcing the rest of the group to catch up with her. There was no retreat for them, not after they'd come this far...

* * *

They were here. Orochimaru could hear the fighting in the level above him, but he remained unconcerned. Chakra signatures were splitting up...they were separating into groups. Hadn't they learned from the last time?

Of course not.

There was also the fact that fewer nearby friends meant that more offensive techniques could be performed, without worrying about harming any allies. Strangely enough, there were only two people heading towards him, and it was a pair of chakra signatures that he hadn't felt for quite some time.

Tayuya and Pein, coming all by themselves to end his life?

"Kabuto, prepare for battle."

He relished the idea. Maybe there was some truth to the thought that Tayuya had taken his words to heart, so long ago; that she would train under him until she was strong enough to kill him, and supplant him as Otogakure's ruler.

Still, he remained seated on the throne he'd formed with a Doton technique, the same seat he raised in each of his major facilities. The Basilisk's Throne, he called it. A seat he'd promised Tayuya if she ever killed him. She had been his right hand and his guardian, and after he left her for dead, she'd chosen to find greater strength than he ever gave her. A Biju was stronger than any technique he could have taught, more oppressive than any torture technique.

She had joined an elite group, forced upon the road of loneliness and pain, and now she was coming to the place where it had all begun. As she struck down the door blocking her path, Orochimaru's smile was genuine.

His little girl was all grown up.

"Well, it's been a long time." He hissed, the words extending from his thinly-parted lips. "Nagato...or would you rather I call you Pein? Yahiko's corpse doesn't suit you, I'm glad to see you out and about for once."

"Silence, you traitor."

Orochimaru didn't resist the _Bansho Ten'in,_ bursting into dozens of snakes before reforming on the other side of the Rinnegan-wielder.

"This, from the man who assassinated his leader's entire family? From the man who let his best friend die?"

"He's not going to be the one to kill you. I am." Tayuya asserted.

"Then kill me, Tayuya-chan." Orochimaru smirked, avoiding the kunai sent his way. "Kabuto-kun, would you dispose of our old associate? I'm afraid his eyes stand out a little too much for my taste."

"Of course, Orochimaru-sama." The smile on the silver-haired medic's face wasn't enough to intimidate Nagato.

Why should god fear man?

* * *

"You know, I never get tired of killing these things." Sasuke looked down at the corpse of a curse-marked Oto-nin. Transformed into his second stage, the _Amaterasu_ had proved a fine-enough counter to his charge. "Maybe that's bad of me, though. They're all victims."

"You're one of those things too, Sasuke-san." Sai reminded him. "As I recall, you were going to join Orochimaru until Taicho stopped you. What makes you think you'd have been treated any better than these experiments?"

As he spoke, Sai's tanto went through the eye of another _infuin_ -branded ninja, his ink tigers running amok on the battlefield.

"Less talking, more fighting." Sakura chastised both men, her fist beheading one particularly unfortunate opponent.

Despite her inner squeamishness, a trait she shared with her former mentor, Sakura refused to be held back on the battlefield while the rest of her friends marched on. She would decompress after the battle, her emotions would catch up with her then...but for now, she was invulnerable to their touch.

Sai complimented the pair well in battle, his Ne training and access to both short- and long-ranged Ninjutsu effectively allowing him to be a stand-in for Kakashi. His motions flowed with Sasuke's, and they all took care to not get separated. With this many enemies around them, a lone ninja was a dead one. They couldn't bottleneck their opponents either, because doing so would risk their teammates' lives in the event that they lost.

They couldn't lose. Not now.

A blade of wind blew past them, forcing them to split to opposite sides; Sai and Sakura were joined together, and Sasuke was left on his own. Privately, the Uchiha was glad for that. As the _Ten no Infuin_ crawled across his body for the first time in years, dark strength giving his power a new height, he laughed menacingly.

In moments, his electrified hand was bloody, a black _Chidori_ coating the skin from his fingertips to the middle of his forearm. He imagined that this was what it felt like for a Jinchuriki to lose themselves in the demonic chakra of their Biju. Unrestrained, he let his rage run free, contained only by the knowledge that he could reverse the process as long as he was still in the first state of the transformation.

His color-inverted Mangekyou spun freely, the _Amaterasu_ his weapon of choice as it moved to shield him. As he moved, the _Susano'o_ began to form around him, uncountable generations of hatred in his bloodline rising to the surface, and he roared in defiance.

When the black flames of the sun goddess wrapped around as many Oto-nin as Sasuke could manage, that was when he knew that he had been write to declare his title as the _Hi no Seishin._ He was the Spirit of Fire, the being that had guarded all Uchiha since the clan's inception.

The gods had made the world in seven days and nights, and the dark fire of his technique would last for the same amount of time.

As his face twisted into a snarl, Sasuke held no remorse for those he was about to kill.

* * *

"Suiton: Oni Kanadzuchi!" Tayuya yelled, the Demon Hammer knocking Orochimaru to the ground.

The North Gate's guardian wasn't willing to give him any rest. Before he could stand, she was on him, her kunai bloodied as it sank into his gut.

With an unnerving stillness, she drew on the Sanbi's chakra. Orochimaru took that time to perform a _kawarimi,_ and start drawing upon the natural energy he used for Hebi-Senjutsu. Each bore their own cosmetic changes; Tayuya's lips hardened into a piercing beak, her facial bones restructuring so that her mouth jutted outward. Her knuckles flattened, hard cartilage and keratin coating the outer skin of her fingers that tapered into claws. The light green of the Sanbi's chakra coated her like a blanket.

Orochimaru's skin gained a scale-pattern, his flesh seeming to become more sinewy. His nose shortened, nostrils thinning and elongating in mimicry of a snake's. His movements seemed like smoke, as though he could be anywhere at any time.

Both of them ignored their comrades. This wasn't a battle where they could afford concern for others.

Orochimaru's natural speed was augmented even further, but compared to the increase in Tayuya's durability, he wondered whether or not it would be enough.

"Raiton: Hekirei!" Orochimaru called out, a sonic boom followed by three electric bolts that Tayuya couldn't dodge.

The force sent Tayuya flipping over backwards, but Orochimaru was struck from behind after she used a _shunshin_ to get to his back. The Sanbi's demonic chakra burned him as it touched him, but it wasn't like the Kyuubi.

Tayuya's inner demon was far more defensive in nature, its energy used as a protective measure more than anything else. The Kyuubi, on the other hand, projected its chakra as a weapon of supreme destruction. There was a reason that the hellish fox was considered the strongest of the Biju, and its willingness to incite violence was that reason. None of the other demons possessed its otherworldly strength, or the hatred that it leveled at the world.

Orochimaru could still win.

"Ototon: Todoroki!" Both of them shouted, though Tayuya's demon-powered technique overpowered the White Snake.

It left him reeling, and as Tayuya's hand stabbed through his abdomen, Orochimaru had to give his former guardian credit: she had learned well.

* * *

"There's a battle going on, isn't there?" Naruto asked. "I can hear it."

"Yeah, everyone else is up there dyin' while we play guard duty. Somethin', somethin', last line of defense." Suigetsu said.

"Get me out of this machine."

"Naruto, I don't know what difference you think it will make. Don't you barely have enough chakra to stay alive?" Juugo asked.

"Fine, then. Karin, get me out of this machine. You're a sensor, you've figured out what's going on..."

"You have to do something for me, though." Karin bargained. "Much as I...hate it...Orochimaru had one _last_ task for me."

"Even when he's about to die, you still feel compelled, huh? Fine. Get me out, and I'll do whatever it is."

Only the Senjutsu chakra running through his body was keeping Naruto calm. As he felt the unclasping of his manacles and leg irons, he followed Karin down a hallway at the end of the room. The Kyuubi's chakra mixed with Naruto's own natural energy, and Naruto remembered the words that the Great Toad Sage had told him when he trained on Myobokuzan.

 _"Eyesight to the blind, struggler."_ He had said.

 _"Struggler?"_

 _"That is your title. One of many, cursed child. Your sight will bring the world to its knees, if you so wish it. But this I tell you true: the demon and the world shall become those eyes through which you see the world."_

He couldn't rebuild his organs. The Kyuubi could repair damage, but it couldn't completely replace something. But by using natural energy and Senjutsu chakra to sense the world around him, and channeling the Kyuubi's chakra to his empty sockets...

He opened his eyes, and Karin drew back in fear for a moment. In the darkness that stood where his missing eyes once had, the ethereal glow of a demon long-chained was shining through.

"You fulfilled your end of the bargain. Now I'll fulfill mine. But first...your seal can restore chakra to others, right? I'm gonna need some. A lot."

* * *

"Worthless fool." Nagato admonished his adversary.

As he was now, he could not be overcome. Without the need to expel his chakra through receivers to six simultaneous bodies, Nagato could channel each of the Rinnegan's powers simultaneously. The chakra scalpels Kabuto wielded broke themselves against Nagato's skin, absorbed to fuel the next offensive that the Akatsuki's leader would launch.

Grabbing Kabuto by the throat after a _Bansho Ten'in_ , Nagato snapped the silver-haired medic's neck, only to discover that 'he' was no more than an animated corpse.

That likely meant the real one was going further away, an attempt to save himself. He could be dealt with later...perhaps the Akatsuki might even have a place for him within its ranks. Putting those thoughts into the back of his mind, Nagato watched Tayuya's assault on her former master.

She had the upper hand, but her rage left holes in the attack pattern that Orochimaru was more than happy to utilize. Her physical resistance was heightened far beyond human limits, particularly on her back, where Orochimaru normally tried to strike. Many of his attacks connected, but it was relatively difficult to cut through the dense cloak of chakra around her, and those strikes that _did_ score cuts in her flesh were quickly healed.

"You always were the best of the Sound Four, Tayuya-chan." Orochimaru praised his former guardian, weaving between Tayuya's attacks. "Not the strongest, not the fastest, but the smartest by far. And now, look at you! You share your body with another, like Sakon and Ukon. Jirobo's strength, Kidomaru's reflexes...Kimimaro's ferocity."

Orochimaru grinned widely, taking a demon-powered punch to his face for the trouble. He landed on his throne, but soon felt a familiar presence that made Tayuya stop in her tracks.

It was a nauseating, all-encompassing dread that had been carried on the air. The tell-tale sign that soon, all would no longer be right with the world. From far below, a savage roar was heard; that was a testament to Naruto's powerful chakra, more than anything else. He'd gotten himself free, and he would be coming. His heartbeat was a drum, marching Orochimaru to his execution in grand style.

Baring his _Kusanagi's_ blade once again, the last of the Sannin smiled.

The new year's coming...what a perfect time to die.

He sprang forward, sword in hand, and Tayuya didn't move as cold steel bit through her shoulder and into her chest.

 **"Got you now, you son of a bitch."** She snarled, firing a miniature Bijudama at point-blank range.

The effect was instant: Orochimaru's body severed in half, with a large chunk missing from the middle. True to form, however, the White Snake spat out a new body for himself.

"You should know better than that, Tayuya-chan. Doton: Nendo Mamushi!"

The Clay Viper technique brought the creatures on his throne to life, and while their venom would be filtered out of Tayuya's system, the creatures were still a nuisance that she would need to dispose of.

Or not, as the Sanbi's chakra rendered them inanimate. That was the trouble with fighting a Jinchuriki: if you weren't _also_ a Jinchuriki, you were at a deep disadvantage. She couldn't manage a killing blow, and he could barely wound her.

Nagato decided that, now, it was time to step in. A chakra receiver blocked the _Kusanagi_ as it swung, and Tayuya's claws cut deeply into Orochimaru's chest.

"Kuchiyose: Roku Hebi Ketsugou!" Orochimaru called out, and Nagato fell to the ground as six snakes wrapped around his arms and legs, one coiling around his joined wrists and another poised to sink its fangs into his jugular vein.

The technique wasn't something that could truly incapacitate the Rinnegan-wielding Uzumaki. And if all truth was told, it was nothing but a gesture. Nagato was irritated, but chose to remain in the background once again. He could feel it: the son-who-was-not was coming.

"Stay out of this, little orphan boy." Orochimaru narrowed his serpentine eyes, taking blow after blow from Tayuya.

Still, he seemed mostly unharmed, despite his relatively low durability. He was right in the middle of this host body's existence, having accustomed to it and without risking its degeneration; he was at the peak of his abilities, and it showed.

Both combatants bared their fangs, rushing through hand-seals.

"Raiton: Boruto Kireme!"

"Suiton: Tate Assai-ki!"

As Orochimaru's Bolt Cutter technique surged forward, Tayuya ran headlong towards it, a half-dome of viscous water in front of her that the electricity warped around. She crashed into her former master, the Shield Crusher knocking the wind from his lungs and cracking his ribs.

"Suiton: Suiro no Jutsu!" Tayuya called out, the water before her shifting into the Water Prison.

Immobilized by the density of the chakra inside of the _Suiro no Jutsu,_ Orochimaru had plenty of time to reflect on the irony that just as the technique had saved his life against Naruto, it would be what killed him. He had no air in his lungs, and in moments, he would lose consciousness.

Inwardly, Orochimaru debated whether or not it was worth exposing his final trick in a gambit to stay alive. Jiraiya, Tsunade, Hiruzen...all the others. Everyone he had cared about was dead. He could resurrect himself as many times as he wished, but the peacefulness of an eternity with his loved ones was tempting.

Then, his thoughts shifted to their proper place. If he was going to die, then they would _earn_ his death.

The _Suiro_ holding him exploded as he shed his human skin, reborn with his _Infuin_ form: the eight-headed hydra known as _Yamata no Orochi_ , corrupted by all of his experiments upon the nature of immortality. Almost too large for the chamber they stood in, it made Tayuya's demon-strengthened heart tremble.

Nagato looked on with the sort of mortified fascination that accompanied the discovery of something that should not exist.

 ** _"I am the White Snake."_** Orochimaru declared. _**"Before the gods died, all of my kind were seen as symbolic of duality, and many were even viewed as gods in their own right."**_

He was Ouroboros. He was Apophis. He was Nidhoggr, he was Ladon. He was Aida-Wedo. In him existed all serpents and serpent-gods, for they were him and he was their conduit.

The Sanbi's chakra no longer burned. Her pinpricking claws were hurtful, but far from lethal.

He would live for as long as he could, fight for as long as he could. Only in that way could he honor the memory of those he'd lost, and who'd lost him.

* * *

That thing in Naruto's hands wasn't a sword, Suigetsu concluded. It was too big, too thick, too jagged and too curved. It was more like a heap of raw iron, blackened over a forge-fire to resist the stresses of battle.

It wasn't a weapon designed for any kind of Kenjutsu, almost like mining pick whose handle was bladed as well. It was rough-hewn, and every instinct of the swordsman inside of him resisted the notion that it could even be called a sword. Plain and simple, it was ugly.

That didn't hamper its effectiveness, however. As Naruto wielded it, the demonic blade carved a path through the Oto-nin around them. When it doubled in size, though, the liquid-bodied young man's eyes bugged.

"What the fuck? What the...what the _fuck_ is with that?"

"The more you say the same thing, the dumber you sound, Suigetsu."

"Shut the fuck up, bitch! We're fightin' here!"

"Actually, Naruto-san is the only one who's doing much fighting." Juugo pointed out. The blond was a full five yards ahead of them, a swath of corpses in his wake, and nobody made it past the range of his falx.

"Well, sorry I'm not suicidal enough to charge into a _fuckin' army!_ Goddamn, the hell is wrong with you two? Juugo, I thought your whole thing was that you'd go nuts and start killing people! Karin, I realize that stayin' locked up in a lab as a higher-up leaves you hungry for some dick that won't try to kill you, but for fuck's sake, he's your clansman, right?"

"Orochimaru-sama ran a test, there's no relation between us thanks to his father being non-Uzumaki." Karin smirked.

Well, Namikaze Minato was one-eighth Uzumaki, but that fact was known to very few people.

"Suigetsu...do you think that I would stand a chance against Naruto-san? Look at him. He's barely even used a jutsu. Don't tell me you think you'd stand a chance, either. His feeling is different from Kimimaro or Orochimaru...but the effect is the same. He wouldn't hesitate to cut me down, right now, if I stood between him and his enemy."

Naruto put the falx onto his back, chakra holding it in place, and a roar tore itself from his lungs so strongly that the ground beneath him cracked. The red miasma of the Kyuubi's chakra cloak came out to surround him, and the second battle-scream was louder.

 **"Zenton: Kinzoku Chuuzou!"** He called out the technique's name, causing the Sound Three to look at each other.

All-style? Metal Casting technique?

Kunai and shuriken seemed to leap from the hidden sealing pockets in Naruto's jacket, standing still in the air. Then, without warning, the metal seemed to melt away from the weapons and pooled into countless miniature pellets. Those pellets shot forward at speeds comparable to a Raiton technique, and Naruto thought that he understood the concept of the old world's, "guns," now.

The next two lines of opposition fell to the assault, and Naruto continued to stalk forward. His hands moved with precision, despite his months of captivity.

 **"Katon: Saisei!"**

The Kyuubi Jinchuriki's flesh caught fire, and he barreled forward to spread those flames. Reaching out with his mind to the metal balls, he orchestrated his favorite and most-used Raiton technique.

 **"Raiton: Raigen'ya!"**

Naruto was a one-man massacre machine, unstoppable in his almighty rage. He didn't cry out when his own technique rebounded and struck the falx on his back, instead converting the electric-flavored chakra into a speed boost.

 **"Keep up, you three! I'm not going to carry you to the exit!"** He called back to the relatively newly-minted Sound Three.

Suigetsu shrugged as he took the nondescript broadsword from his back; it was something he'd managed to look from some poor sucker's corpse a few minutes ago, but with Naruto having done most of the killing, he hadn't seen the point of keeping it in his hand.

"Time for some fun, Juugo!" The amorphous swordsman grinned, baring his shark-like teeth.

The teen swordsman ran forward, blade swinging from the side. Juugo jumped up, riding the flat of the sword for a few feet as his manic laughter echoed. leaping off of the broadsword, it was a testament to Suigetsu's skill that it didn't waver in his hands. Juugo landed with an earth-shattering punch, eyes wide as he started his slaughter.

Karin shook her head.

 _Men._ She groaned internally. _Can't do a damn thing without their testosterone leaking like a sieve._

She drew two kunai, one tagging an Oto-nin in the back of his head as he was about to cut Naruto down...not that the injury would prove anywhere near fatal, of course, but the less chakra he needed to expend, the higher her chances of survival. In true Otogakure fashion, Karin couldn't really care less about Suigetsu or Juugo outside of their necessity to her life, at the moment. Even with that having been said, though, she wouldn't claim that she was outright opposed to their companionship.

Naruto howled, his features becoming more animalistic with each passing second. A tail of bloody chakra extended from the base of Naruto's spine, followed by a second and a third. His muscles surged, his forehead seeming to slope back as his nasal bridge and jawbone extended forward. His teeth lengthened, and the eyes-that-were-not darkened with his malicious intent.

Eschewing jutsu, or even his sword, Naruto's open-palmed slap was strong enough to cave one unfortunate Oto-nin's skull in. As she fell, Karin saw the angry imprint left by the Kyuubi's chakra. There was no logic in his thoughts anymore, only the mass of enemies that blocked his way to freedom.

He would bring death to them all.

* * *

"Garoga!" Kiba shouted as he and Akamaru spun, tearing through their enemies. The Inuzuka heir had gone into his beast-man transformation, shaggy hair dropping down past his shoulders.

Kiba appreciated the fact that, physically, he was built the same way as Naruto and Jiraiya; his broad frame and thick layers of muscle allowed him to put the most possible speed and power behind his blows.

"Choukoku Nokoribi!" He shouted, and this time flames spun around the pair as they passed by one another.

Shino hid with the _Kato Hikari no Jutsu,_ the Transient Light technique making him effectively invisible in the darkness of the underground. His _kikaichu_ swarmed those enemies out of his teammates' ranges, draining their chakra and tiring them.

Hinata, timid little Hinata, darted around the room with all the finesse of a hunting lioness. Each of her palm-strikes incapacitated, if not outright killing their targets. As Shino observed her, he reached the conclusion that nobody would have expected two and a half years ago: Hinata was the strongest, most fearsome member of their team. Kiba acted tough, his macho exterior and solid combat skills making him a sincere threat, but there was no doubt in his mind about the words Hyuuga Hiashi had always been quick to spout: the Hyuuga were the strongest clan in Konoha.

"Kaiten: Suzume no Hatsu Hiko!" Hinata spun, the small dome of chakra releasing constructs in the form of birds, which threw back the enemies they struck.

The First Flight of the Sparrow technique, a Hyuuga secret which she'd undoubtedly learned from Neji; despite his status as a member of the Branch House, his uncanny skill at recreating the Main House's secret techniques had caused a major controversy among the clan's elders.

Privately, the Aburame heir hoped that those elders would die in a ditch and rot in hell.

Publicly, he continued his hidden assault on the enemies in front of him.

Kiba laughed, throwing kunai as he spun into his various _Tsuuga_ -branch techniques. Then, apparently, he decided that he'd had enough fun with playing around.

"Mangetsu!" He shouted, dodging a _Renkudan_ in the process. "Jinrou!"

 _Full Moon Werewolf._ One of the Inuzuka's strongest Kinjutsu, it had a few lasting effects. It left Kiba with heightened aggression and stronger senses, as well as a weakness to anything considered remotely holy. Those side-effects would disappear after an indeterminate amount of time, but they lasted longer after every recurrence of the technique, to the point where they would become permanent.

This was the second time Kiba had felt the need to use it, with the first time happening during the mission to retrieve Sasuke. According to Kankuro, there hadn't been much left of the conjoined twins when he got there...just scraps of clothing, and some spatters of blood. Shino _really_ wanted to believe that his teammate wouldn't become a cannibal in this state.

With a howl, the Inuzuka grew taller, his limbs elongating and widening as more muscle was added to them. His facial features contorted, a muzzle growing out of his face as the hair across his body lengthened. The same changes happened to Akamaru, in the canine's humanoid form, mixing his original canine features back into the genetic code.

Averting his eyes from the light, Shino had to wonder what kind of werewolf could breathe fire. That didn't exactly seem normal.

* * *

"Did we clear them out?" Sasuke panted, his body returning to normal as he dropped to one knee, blood leaking from several cuts along his body.

"It would appear so, Sasuke-kun. Are you well enough to continue?" Sai asked.

"I...I think I'll need a minute. Shit, I forgot how much that damn seal drains my chakra..."

"Sakura, heal him and stay with him. I'm going to see if anyone else needs help." Sai vanished. Quietly, Sakura was glad for the one-on-one time with her schoolyard crush, despite the desperate nature of their situation.

Sai knew that would be the case. The two of them had done the majority of the fighting, against a smaller crowd of opponents than most of the others were up against. In Ne, a soldier would not abandon their mission...and right now, his mission as the current leader was to ensure that nobody died.

He found Team Gai and Higurashi facing a far larger crowd of opponents than his teammates from Team Seven. Leaping into the fray, his tipless tanto finding its way through an enemy's ribs.

"Are Sakura-chan and Sasuke-kun alright?" Lee asked him, a double-leg kick plowing into an Oto-nin in front of Sai.

"They're fine." The Ne operative responded. "Better than you seem to be doing."

Tenten's array of weapons was littered around the battlefield amid Otogakure's corpses, and she had two shuriken attached to the back of her hands to act as guards while she swung her swords. Neji moved with all the subtlety of a rhino, lethal _Jyuken_ attacks felling enemies where they stood. Signs of various elemental jutsu were present, a puddle or the remnants of an earthen wall. In the underground tunnels of Otogakure's bases, fire was as dangerous for its heat as its smoke.

Anyone smart would avoid Katon techniques...which probably meant that Kiba, or Naruto, had used at least one. A roar from below shook the ground they stood on, and Sai wasn't sure whether it was Yugito, Tayuya, or Naruto.

He wasn't sure which of those options was better, either. Yugito had the most experience with her Biju, and was the best at controlling it. However, if she felt the need to draw on her demon's power that deeply, then she was in trouble. Tayuya was the newest Jinchuriki, arguably the least able to control her demon...but it was no great secret that the Kyuubi, more than any of the other Biju, desired freedom above all else. It would twist and corrupt its Jinchuriki if it could, make the allure of its power too hard to resist.

It was also, far and away, the most powerful of its kind. If Naruto had given in to the Kyuubi's hellish might, then it might not be a bad idea to simply evacuate and allow him to kill his way to the exit.

Another roar.

Sai's stomach sank, a deep worry that he forced back to the furthest recesses of his mind. He couldn't worry about anything except killing the enemies in front of him. Though he was surprised when a kunai entered the small of his back, his eyes widening from the pain, he didn't bother removing it; that would only increase the seriousness of the injury, causing him to bleed out.

The roots of Konoha could never be destroyed. He couldn't afford to let himself die here.

Sai fought on. Every thrust of his tanto, every jutsu he cast, was another step toward victory. He had to reach that victory.

He dropped to his knees as a sword ran him through at the underside of his ribs, soon rising again to kill the man who'd stabbed him. Idly, Sai realized that he couldn't feel any pain.

Tenten's axe-and-sword dual-wielding cleared a path for him, Neji and Lee keeping more foes at bay. The message was clear: _go back to Sakura so that she can heal you._

But if he left, then the tide would shift badly in the favor of the Oto-nin.

 _From the roots we come._

 _To the roots we will return._

 _Embrace the shadow._

Sai called on every ounce of chakra that he possessed, manifesting so much that its blue glow surrounded his body. Focusing all of it on the tip of his blade, Sai gave a shout of exertion before releasing all of it in a last-ditch attack. Spinning in a circle, the blue haze around him dissipated as it cut down everyone it came into contact with.

As he lost his consciousness, Sai was glad to know that his not-so-newfound friends had survived.

 _I can see the light._

 _The roots uphold the Great Tree._

 _The Hokage lives._

* * *

"Goddamn _troublesome_ woman, with her _troublesome_ demon, going off on her own while we're on this _troublesome_ suicide mission of a rescue..."

Shikamaru wasn't having a good time. Matter of fact, he hadn't really been having a good time since he left Konoha. Anything that kept him away from his bed, or off of a hill looking up at the clouds, was a nuisance. This battle was definitely a lot worse.

He, Ino, and Chouji had grouped up with Yugito, tearing their way through their own section of the massive base. While Ino and Chouji went headlong into the battle, Shikamaru hung back, preferring his distance. Ino had used the first level of her clan's _Nou Kai_ technique, something that functioned the same way as the Inner Gates. The difference was that the Inner Gates focused on muscular ability, while the Brain Release technique did exactly what its name implied.

It made Ino even _more_ troublesome. Unleashing the Yamanaka's latent psychic powers by way of allowing more brainpower to be used, she could counterbalance all weapons sent her way by creating an equal opposing force. Though it would cause some inconveniences later, a headache and mild dehydration being the worst extent of the first level's use, it was fully possible to die if she continued to draw on more power.

Still, the Nara heir was confident that they would end up fine. Yugito had drawn on the Nibi's chakra, remaining in a state of controlled madness as she tore through her enemies. Ino was untouchable, Chouji acting as her foil to Ninjutsu by countering with heavy-handed sweeps that knocked his foes away.

Shikamaru sat back, spikes of physical shadows causing death among Otogakure's ranks. Any time a weapon or jutsu came close to him, he would drop into the darkness around him and re-emerge unharmed.

"They've thinned out! Begin retreating, we're going to make our way back to the others!" Shikamaru said.

 **"I'll finish up here, you guys."** Yugito grinned, two tails spinning behind her as she darted from one soon-to-be-corpse to the next.

The Nibi healed her whenever she was injured, and that trait alone made Shikamaru more than willing to leave everything to her. Quietly, he was mildly jealous of that ability.

As Team Asuma left, Yugito let herself cut loose a little more, blue flames extending from her body that burned whoever she came into contact with.

Her wild laughter echoed off of the walls.

* * *

 _ **"It's useless, Tayuya-chan. Why do you keep going? You're no match for me."**_

One of _Yamata no Orochimaru's_ heads had gripped her, pinning her between its jaw and the roof of its mouth. The central, "main," head spoke to her.

 **"You told me...if I wanted to kill you...to become your right hand and your guardian. I succeeded, didn't I?"** Tayuya growled out through deep, audible breaths.

Orochimaru chuckled, nodding his admission.

 _ **"You served me well. But, unfortunately, you were taken from me...and Naruto-kun took your heart and mind away from the vengeance that drove you. A damnable quality of his. You grew soft, and when we were reunited at last, you couldn't rise to challenge me. Even now, it's not strength that drives your hand to strike. It's fear. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate...and the hate you feel toward me drives your own suffering."**_

 **"Don't you dare blame _me_ for the life you forced on me!"**

Tayuya drew further on the Sanbi's chakra, an exoskeletal shell beginning to form on her back as rings of bone wrapped around her limbs. With the extra space, she was able to force the snake-head's jaw open, letting loose a _Suiton:_ _Wangetsu Mizuken_ that sliced off two of the eight heads...that grew back in mere seconds.

"Tayuya, your part in this is over. Let me take over." Nagato demanded.

 **"No! We had a deal!"**

Nagato didn't hesitate any longer, the oppressive strength of the Rinnegan bearing down upon the seventeen-year-old kunoichi.

The _Shinra Tensei_ took her by surprise, as did the series of black receivers that followed as she became infinitely familiar with the wall she was pinned to. The crushing force of his chakra flooding through the rods wasn't enough to kill, but it would keep her immobile for long enough that she would be unable to interfere.

"Orochimaru...do you understand what's about to happen to you?"

 ** _"I'm going to crush a false god."_** The snake-man rasped his laughter. _**"Take your body for my own, and never again be left to wonder at the secrets of the world!"**_

"You'll be sorely disappointed, if that's the case. This shallow frame is mortal, more frail than you might believe. And these eyes...these are not the eyes of monsters or men. These are the eyes of a god."

Nagato knew that it was impossible for him to achieve victory alone in this fight.

"Kuchiyose: Rikudo Pein!"

Six bodies appeared before _Yamata no Orochimaru,_ each garbed in black robes adorned with red clouds, and each with their own set of Rinnegan. It would be difficult, but if he limited the amount of chakra allotted to Chikushodo, then all seven bodies could be controlled. The animal-summoning path of Pein called forth a drill-beaked bird that pierced its serpentine enemy through the tail.

Shurado fired off two rockets as Gakido began to absorb the snake abomination's chakra. While Orochimaru had a similar power, it was useless in the face of the Rinnegan; a stronger jutsu would always overpower a weaker one.

As _Yamata no Orochimaru_ tasted the pyrite chakra of Nagato's Rinnegan, burning like the sun and yet with the bitter undercurrent of coffee left to steep too long, he knew that he was doomed. That energy was cursed, evil, vile beyond the depths of his understanding.

That was the taste of death.

The Gedo Pein, Nagato himself, summoned chains of foul chakra that burned at the snake-man's flesh. Then, with its expressionless declaration of malevolence, it began the _Chibaku Tensei._

"In life, one experiences suffering. Loved ones die, plans run askew, and disappointment becomes a commonplace feeling." Nagato said, stone beginning to wrap around the White Snake. "The root expression for these things is called pain. I am Pein, the god of Amegakure, and the time has come for your judgement. Feel pain. Contemplate pain. Accept pain. Know pain."

All seven paths of Pein circled around the ball of stone that now contained Orochimaru's inhuman state. Each of them channeled chakra, a simultaneous _Shinra Tensei_ crushing the multi-headed snake inside it before the ball shot skyward, ripping through the earth above it.

Panting, Nagato summoned the _Meifu no Ou_ and moved the Rikudo Pein inside of it before dismissing them all. They would lie in stasis until the next time he called upon them. Recalling his chakra receivers, he walked inside of his summon's mouth and vanished as well.

* * *

"Sai, wake up!" Sakura yelled, flooding the Ne commander-to-be with green medical chakra.

"Sakura..." Neji shook his head, but Hinata insisted on joining her energy with Sakura's to expedite the healing process.

"Oh, come on, his body's fine." Kiba rolled his eyes, looking at the pale-skinned teen. "He just needs something to kick-start him back into gear."

Unceremoniously, the Inuzuka hoisted Sai up with his left hand. With his right, he delivered a powerful gut punch that made Sai cough and open his eyes.

Dropping the Anbu, Kiba turned around and gave Sakura his most shit-eating grin.

"See? Traditional medicine is for pansies. A _real_ man accepts the healing properties of a good pun-"

With a forward step, Sakura's fist hit Kiba's jaw so hard that the crack was audible from several feet away.

"Hinata, can you heal Kiba? I would, but I'm worried that he might not like the alternative medicine I'll give him."

Her wide, close-lipped smile was as disingenuous as they came.

Maybe that would teach the mutt.

"Sai, are you okay?" She asked.

"I believe so, Sak- LOOK OUT!" Sai interrupted himself in an attempt to warn Tenten, whose back was turned to a still-moving enemy.

 _Wash the spears when the sun climbs high._

 _Wash the spears when the sun climbs low._

 _Wash the spears. Who fears to die?_

Before anyone else could turn, Higurashi had thrown himself in the way of the Oto-nin's attack, a drill-transformed hand ripping through the armor in front of his lungs and chest. The transformed test subject was beheaded in recompense, but the last true Jie sank to his knees as the bony weapon exited his body.

 _Wash the spears...no one I know!_

Without thinking, he laughed, his off-white beard becoming stained with red as blood dribbled down from the corner of his mouth.

"All dreams must fade." Despite the pain, Higurashi smiled as he spoke, spilling more blood as it leaked out from between his teeth. "Lament not the loss, but sing and rejoice in my freedom."

"No!" Tenten yelled.

The numbness in her stomach, at Sai's near-death experience, had come back tenfold. There was no need to doubt: no amount of medical chakra could heal that gaping wound.

"Tenten...heavenly one, little angel, this will be the last lesson I teach you. Duty is heavier than a mountain...and death is lighter than a feather. Do you understand?"

Tears welled in the bun-touting girl's eyes.

"I...yes, otou-san."

"Do not cry. Do not shame yourself before me! You are the next Jie, the last who will carry that name. Still, you must live on, no matter the cost."

He coughed, palm catching the blood before it could spray.

"Until water is gone, until shade is gone...into the darkness with teeth bared, screaming defiance with the last breath...to spit in the Dead Demon's eyes on the last of days. That is my family's oath. I do not fear to wake from this dream!"

Tenten dropped down, her hands wrapping around her adopted father from behind.

"Sing, my daughter. Sing because you can, because you must. Sing because there is nobody else left who can sing in your place."

The various members of their group all bowed their heads or looked away, as Tenten's shaking voice gave life to words she'd hoped to never speak.

 _Life is a dream that knows no shade.  
_  
 _Life is a dream of pain and woe._  
 _  
A dream from which we pray to wake._  
 _  
A dream from which we wake and go._  
 _  
Who would sleep when the new dawn waits?_  
 _  
Who would sleep when the sweet winds blow?  
_  
 _A dream must end when the new dawn comes._

 _This dream from which we wake and go._

"Thank you. I love you, Tenten."

Jie Higurashi fell forwards, his body wrenching free of Tenten's grip. He was dead before he hit the ground.

* * *

Naruto's Biju cloak receded when he, "saw," Tayuya, running to her side and cradling her.

"Tayuya! Tayuya!"

"I... _Naruto!_ " She squealed uncharacteristically, arms wrapping around her no-longer-missing boyfriend. "OhgodsIthoughtImightneverseeyouagainIdon'tknowwhere-"

She was silenced by a kiss, a quick and simple one to assure her that she wasn't dreaming. The second was much longer, and Tayuya was shocked when she paid attention to his face. Separating, she practically screamed.

"Your eyes!"

"I...yeah. Not my fault. You worked for the fucker for ten years or so, right? You know what kind of a twisted fuck he is."

"You know, this reunion is touching and all, but I feel like you forgot we exist." Suigetsu piped up.

Two redheaded women cleared the room, simultaneously landing a punch to one side of the aquamorph's face.

"Suigetsu, one more word..."

"...and I'll kill you myself."

Tayuya raised an eyebrow at Karin.

"Long time no see, tech junkie."

"Same to you, flutie-pie."

"Damn, I should have come up with that one." Naruto mused to himself.

"Naruto, the entire world and their summons know you're a moron. I love you, but..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I blew myself up to let you escape. I'm never gonna hear the end of it for forever."

"I take back what I said. Go back to the reunion, I can't stand this familiarity." Suigetsu complained, but this time it was Juugo who landed an overhead fist-drop onto Suigetsu's head.

"You just can't please some people." Naruto laughed.

He wrapped his arms around Tayuya's waist, hoisting her up and spinning her. For all intents and purposes, it seemed like they'd only been separated for a few minutes rather than almost three months.

But then, they needed that sort of reaction. They needed that sense of normalcy to return to their lives.

Steadily, the rest of the group filtered down as they searched for Naruto, and he was pleased to see that he knew everyone.

He was free, at long last.


	57. Memories of a Time to Come

**Hey, I'm back. Regular-length chapter this time...sorry if I got your hopes up, lol.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. OneLunchMan: I've missed you, buddy. I have _no idea_ how long this story is going to go on for, but I _do_ have some semblance of what I want the end to look like. Getting there, however, could take anywhere from 10 chapters to another 50! That would be a crazy ride for all of you that have been here since the beginning, to get a 100+ chapter fic inside of a year. That would be nuts for me as an author, too. Hell, I've put out more than 50 chapters in 3 months, that's a goddamn Herculean pace.**

 **Second...I tried to ask about it in an AN a few months ago, but apparently FFN's doc editor will erase certain words that are put in their proper format. Among them are "DVA" (like the Overwatch character) and "P.A.T.R.E.O.N." so I'll ask again:**

 **If I opened a P.A.T.R.E.O.N. account so that readers could donate money to me, and/or request fics by way of donation, would anybody be interested in funding my writing? Let me tell you, working two jobs that pay minimum wage is...not the most exciting way to earn a living, and I barely even do that much. I'm still so broke that I, a man in my 20s, am living in my parents' basement with my siblings.**

 **I will beg.**

 **2\. gunslinger20121: I went a bit out of my way to make it discernable this chapter. I'm glad you asked, and I won't say it outright for a while, but...hopefully, you'll pick up on what happened. The end result, if not the actual thing that happened, because _that_ was intentionally misleading.**

 **3\. RedCide47: Yeah, definitely a _Star Wars_ reference. If you go to my profile, you'll see a fair number of Vader-based oneshots from a few years ago. The Jie/Aiel quotes are fun, I enjoyed writing Higurashi into my story. And Naruto has his freedom. His sweet, sweet freedom... but can he overcome fate?**

 **4\. tastybigsexy: The children get addressed in this chapter. As far as the eyes...while a blind man will always wish to see again, there's things Naruto can do with his "demon eyes" that his normal ones can't. Using his Senjutsu chakra and Kurama's chakra together, Naruto gains a Sharingan/Byakugan-like ability to physically "see" chakra. (An effect I tried to demonstrate in my writing, though that likely didn't come through clearly.) The Kyuubi's heightened senses allow him to pick out sounds and smells to determine the placement of objects, or the size of the room that he's in. Even though he's lost his eyes, he technically has an even stronger sense of sight than he did before.**

 **Basically, just imagine that Naruto has the Byakugan's powers, minus the ability to see tenketsu.**

 **5\. Guest: _The Wheel of Time_ is one of my favorite, if not my absolute favorite, high fantasy series. Hell, go beyond that! It's one of my favorite literary works of all time. This is sort of my way to honor Robert Jordan's memory: he's not alive, but his words will stay alive so long as someone remembers them.**

 **6\. Sasuke Uchiha Mangekyou: My dude, did you look at the bottom line of this fic when you clicked on it? I've published 57 chapters in 3 months, and after last chapter's behemoth wordcount (for me) I broke the 200k mark for words written. You'll get your chapters frequently, no need for those threats, lmao.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"It's...good to see all of you. Chojuro, I don't think we ever properly met, but...you know who I am, right?"

"Technically, I fought against you." The blue-haired teen shrugged. "Doesn't take a genius to figure out what would've happened if we met on the battlefield, though."

Naruto took a quick headcount, realizing something was wrong.

"Wait a second, where are...Rei? Kouga?"

Karin's sensory ability kicked in, and she paled.

"The children!" She exclaimed, tearing back down the same way the Sound Three had come with Naruto.

"Stay here. The fewer people that go down there, the better." Naruto commanded, following his kinswoman.

As they traveled down the stairs and through the empty hallways, Naruto took in the carnage he'd caused. He didn't remember acting this violent, he didn't remember killing all of them so brutally...but it was the only plausible answer. Suigetsu was a swordsman, Karin was a non-combatant, and Juugo preferred the flats of his knuckles to shredding peoples' flesh off with his fingernails.

Pain that he would have to answer for.

Pain that Orochimaru had caused.

"Rei! Kouga!" He called out.

Shadows flitted past him, and Naruto spun, seeing nothing. The visage of that blue stone from Uzushio came into his mind's eye, followed by otherworldly laughter that mocked and derided him.

 _ **"You cannot shield them from their destiny, cursed child. There is neither beginning nor end, and the roles must be fulfilled."**_

 _What role? Son of a bitch, I'll kill you!_

 _ **"You can try, struggler."**_ The voice laughed once more. _**"You and I are just as eternal as the cycle, whether you understand it or not."**_

Naruto ignored the voice after that, moving down to the lowest recesses of his captor's base.

"Part of this world." Kouga mumbled, his hand reaching out to touch one of the children held in stasis; the third-born son, whose chakra was mixed between Naruto's and Hinata's.

"Out of our world, out of our time." Rei said, her fingers just inches away from the middle child, daughter of the Uchiha woman that Naruto knew as Maya.

Both had eyes that glowed a deeper blue than the ocean, red hair appearing as flame against the backdrop of grey stone. When the twins touched their stasis-held counterparts, there was a blinding flash of light that forced Naruto to relinquish his sight once again.

* * *

 _Jie Satoshi ran to war alongside his comrade in arms, a spiky-haired redhead whose ripple-patterned eyes were all the warning his foes would ever get._

 _"How are the children? And your wife?"_

 _The crimson-haired man shook his head._

 _"I haven't seen them in a long time. With any luck, they'll be waiting for me when I return."_

 _Satoshi laughed._

 _"That's very like you, Naruto. Didn't you say something about building a village, when all was said and done? To name it Uzushio, a homeland for your clan...not a bad idea."_

 _"Not an idea to think about, either." Naruto frowned. "We're going to battle, try to be a bit more serious."_

 _"Why?" Satoshi laughed once again, the spears on his back rattling as his body shook. "Give me a reason to survive. I'm not like you, Naruto...you have people counting on you. All I have is the oath my people swear when they come of age. You're also the only one who's guaranteed to live. You've got the Kyuubi's luck, don't you?"_

 _"I don't need help from a demon, though." Naruto stipulated. "These eyes were given to me by my father, the rain god. They tell me all I could ever want to know."_

 _"And what do you say?"_

 _"I say that you need to be ready."_

 _Satoshi rolled his eyes, patting the knives at his sides and motioning to the spears on his back._

 _"I'm as ready as I could be."_

 _Drums sounded in the distance, the beginning of the Jie war song. The cousin-clans were making a joint assault on Tsuchi no Kuni, hired by the daimyo of Kaze no Kuni to expand the desert nation's reach into the foothills that acted as a prelude for the mountains in the distance._

 _"Wash the spears..." Satoshi ran forward, grabbing ahold of and throwing one of his spears._

 _It took a Tsuchi kunoichi in the throat, pinning her body to the tree she stood on and preventing her from warning her comrades in advance._ _The drums had stopped; with any luck, they wouldn't realize what was happening until it was too late._

 _Naruto laughed. Antal Dara had meddled far too often, for far too long, but he knew that nobody would have believed him if he told the story._

 _All times and all places. Harmony and Discord. The key and the gate...the defunct librarian and spymaster for the dead gods was playing a dangerous game. One way or another, it was bound to lose eventually._

 _Still, he knew what was to come. There was no mention of Uzumaki Naruto during the Warring Clans period. No stories of the Rinnegan until his father would wield it, more than sixty years later. Much as he aimed to change that, he knew that it was impossible. The last living god would meddle until its perfect world was achieved, or until someone gained enough strength to defy the laws of the universe and destroy the harbinger of fate itself._

 _Naruto would not be that person._

 _Still, when both sides met in battle, he let his voice join all the rest as death walked among them._

* * *

 ** _"Are you certain, brother?"_** _The Kyuubi asked._

 _"More than anything, Kurama. You, of all things, should know what's going to happen. You know the cycle. I'm no more exempt from it than any other...though my role is different from yours."_

 _ **"And the children?"** It needled him._

 _"I don't deserve to be known by them. Not as I am now. When the cycle begins itself anew, I may be worthy. Don't be afraid, Kurama, you know your duty. We can't return, only press forward. You will see me again. Once, twice, a thousand times will you know me. Only in the final revolution of the cycle, when we free ourselves of blood and blade and sin, can I be allowed to call you my brother."_

 ** _"You've taught me everything I know. Everything_ we _know._ _How am I supposed to move on in this world without you?"_**

 _"You will hate. You will rage. Blood calls to blood, Kurama...you'll find me again. Until then, you must hunt. Will you do it?"_

 _The Kyuubi looked at its brother, this demon in the shape of a man who could crush the world if he so desired. It would be his sacrifice that allowed the devastation of the Holy Dynasty._

 _Tears welled in the fox's eyes._

 ** _"I'm going to miss you, brother. This you, the real you."_**

 _"Every Naruto is the same Naruto." The blond chastised his friend and sibling. "Whether I have ten tails or none, I am still your brother. And you are still my friend."_

 _The sky erupted with blue fire, Matatabi's signal that the gods would soon come down from the Eye of the Heavens. That was Naruto's cue._

 ** _"I will remember."_** _Kurama promised. **"They will answer with blood."**_

 _"You'll become as strong as I am. Us, we're different from other worldly creatures. I'm sure you've realized that by now. The gods were born fully formed, man grows with age...but we demons grow by killing. We kill, and kill, and grow strong from it. We take from what we slay. You will kill the gods, and take their strength. You will kill man, and take his cunning. You will hunt until nothing else is clear, but the ghostly memory of light that remains of this life. You will struggle, forever, to again look at the world through eyes unclouded by grief or misery. When my life ends, your hunt begins."_

 _Naruto stood and laughed, patting his sibling on the head._

 _"My father waits for me." He excused himself, and as the Gates of Heaven opened, Naruto moved with the light._

* * *

"Otou-san."

Twin voices woke Naruto from his reverie, and the first thing he saw were their eyes: their inverted white pupils and black corneas were separated by deep blue iris. Rei and Kouga now had the bodies of their soulless counterparts, their ages advanced by a few more years. Now, if Naruto's mental math was correct, they were physically thirteen.

Karin got up quickly. The call of, _"Okaa-san,"_ was too insistent to refuse. Quietly, she noticed that their original bodies were nowhere to be found.

"Oh, this is gonna be bullshit fucking hard to explain..." Naruto groaned.

"Our time in the Labyrinth erased our memories. I'm sorry, father." Rei apologized. "I will serve you better in the future."

"...the hell did you see?" Naruto asked. "Far as I could tell, it was just some bullshit illusion."

Still, that description didn't seem quite right. Those visions had felt intimately real, as though there was something he was supposed to learn from them. The only conclusion he drew was that _Naruto_ had been a popular name for important people throughout history.

"Memories of a time to come." Karin shook her head. "Prophecies for a past long gone. The idea of time being cyclical isn't a new theory, that everything has happened before and will happen again...but what I saw proved enough. Across every possible world, the theory goes, there are certain roles that must be filled and certain events that must transpire. Orochimaru-sama called you _Ta'veren,_ a fate-twister, but that's not entirely true. You fill one of those roles, so events in your life will inevitably lead you on a destined path."

"I can't believe in that. I _won't_ believe in that." Naruto said obstinately. "Everything I have, all of my strength, I earned for myself. It wasn't handed out by the dead gods, it wasn't given to me by fate...accidents happen. Problems arise. That's the nature of the world we live in, and the reason why shinobi exist."

"You don't have to believe it, father, but it's true." Kouga said. "We are the time-lost. You are the cursed one...and our mother is the holy matron of the twin messiahs."

Naruto sighed.

"There's no way I could be your dad. First of all, time travel is fucking nuts. Second of all, both of you are pure-blooded Uzumaki, and I'm only half. Third-"

"Naruto." Tayuya's voice came from behind, catching the blond by surprise. "What's this about kids?"

"Hello, Tayuya-onee." Rei said.

The Sanbi Jinchuriki narrowed her eyes, and Rei got the distinct impression that she'd misspoken.

"If Naruto is supposed to be your father, then I'm your mother. Full stop, end of logic and discussion. I'm not going to bother getting into how fucking weird your eyes look. Naruto?"

"Yeah?" Tayuya was on edge, if not outright angry. That was never, _ever,_ a good thing. Naruto had seen the consequences firsthand.

"We're leaving. The others are going to bring you up to speed on what's happened while you've been stuck here."

* * *

"Kaminari no Kuni, home to Kumogakure." Itachi mused to himself.

"You know, with all these mountains, it really reminds me of home. Hey, do you guys want to know how I make my art so well? The secret to getting a really nice _'boom'_ sound is to add some oregano."

"Nostalgia, from you?" Izumi laughed. "Deidara, you really _are_ nuts."

"The capacity for artistic expression is directly correlated to how insane a man is." Sasori spoke roughly. "And Deidara is the least sane person I know, out of everyone I've ever met, barring Hidan...though I don't know if we'd really want to count that brainless zombie as someone capable of creating art. Corpses, certainly, but...art takes a higher enlightenment than swinging a glorified meat-hook."

"Funny, Sasori. I would have thought that with how much you enjoy your puppets, you'd have appreciated his killing a little more. After all, corpses stay corpses! They don't move on quickly enough for me. To my mind, the truest art is transient and ephemeral, something that can touch you but remain out of reach except for the brief instant when you understand it. True art should inspire you to chase that feeling, that spark of understanding."

"Nothing about that moronic meat-minded mook was appreciable." The _Akasuna_ asserted.

"Prepare for the attack." Itachi said. "Five minutes, you all know your jobs. Sasori, any word on their forces?"

"Larger than Pein-sama thought they would be, but that shouldn't prove to be a problem. Between Deidara's bombs, my army of puppets, and your ability to turn murder into artistry...and whatever it is that you can do, Maya...with all of us combined, both of Kumo's Jinchuriki dead or missing, the Raikage and most of his ninja out of the village? This is going to be easy. We may even be able to accomplish the second objective and destroy Iwa by the time Pein-sama checks in with us. We can meet up with Kakuzu and Kisame on the way."

"It'll be more important to do it while the Tsuchikage is still out of the village." Deidara gave a sidelong look to his partner. "Let me tell you, that old buzzard is an _ass._ He had no appreciation for my art, whatsoever."

"Nobody can stay in power for seventy years without having some method of control. The Sandaime Hokage was beloved, but his hands were guided by a ruthless council. The Tsuchikage doesn't need one of those." Sasori replied. "Operational silence, mask your chakras...T minus sixty."

Deidara flew. Higher, and higher, and higher...until he swore that ice crystals were forming on his skin. At that point, the hands on his palms began to manifest the largest clay he'd ever made. The steadily-growing ball of clay would take up the vast majority of his chakra, rendering him a non-combatant for the rest of the battle, but it was entirely possible that there wouldn't need to _be_ a battle if his art was as perfect as he hoped.

His chakra formed a shield around it as he let it fall, the house-sized bomb fully primed.

 _Three._

It had descended halfway to the village, and nobody had noticed.

 _Two._

They continued to do nothing. It was practically on top of them.

 _One._

They were gathering chakra to make an attempt at destroying it, but their efforts were too little...and far too late. Deidara grinned from his perch, standing atop his clay bird's back.

 _Zero._

The explosion that followed was strong enough that it knocked all three Akatsuki members to the ground, despite the fact that they were the furthest away from the explosion.

"No wonder he got branded a nukenin for arson." Izumi said. "Who on earth would be crazy enough to..."

"Need I reiterate?" Sasori asked. "Deidara is the least sane person I've ever met."

"Step one is complete." Itachi said. "Moving on to step two."

Itachi and Sasori both, very much, appreciated simplicity. The two-step plan was an embodiment of that appreciation. There was just something nice and fulfilling that they felt when they broke their goals down that way, especially for a mission as nuanced and difficult as, "destroy a hidden village and leave no survivors."

Step one: Deidara bombs the living hell out of everything inside of Kumogakure's borders in one shot, and practically deafens everything within earshot. Step two: everyone else moves in and kills whatever survivors are left, if any.

As the trio entered through the now-ruined gates, even Sasori had to admit that he was impressed with his partner's work. The bomb had gone off in the exact center of the village, and for several yards out from the explosion's center, there were no traces of buildings or corpses; In fact, there wasn't a building left standing.

Itachi and Maya were both sensors, and they found that a few people had been trapped by falling debris.

Seconds later, there were no more people living in Kumogakure.

Though he'd done nothing, Sasori didn't question why he was present. On the off-chance that they ran into the Nibi Jinchuriki, or if either of Iwa's Jinchuriki were defending their village...they would need all the firepower they could get. Neither did the mechanical man lament the loss of his spies in the village; they had served their purpose, and became useless afterwards.

Sasori hated useless things.


	58. War Came to Konoha

**Sorry it took so long, guys.**

 **I'm not afraid to admit that I was being somewhat petty, and was waiting on a few more reviews that...never really came. Whoops. However, I hope you're pleased with this chapter! We're shifting once again, back to Konoha and the situation at hand.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. Seize the Cheese: ...I'm not really sure how to respond to that praise, lol. Thank you, though! If you've enjoyed it this much so far, then hopefully you'll like this one as well.**

 **2\. Megasuper (Guest): I _am_ a magnificent bastard. Thank you for your recognition of that fact.**

 **3\. CompletelyOriginalUsernameNo2: I love your username, so hey, it's all good.**

 **4\. Drake Vallion: I know, right? _Atlantis_ was a great movie. The sequel was...eh...but it made up for in humor what it lacked in good plot. I'm amazed at how far this story's come, as well! I started out with no idea of what I wanted to do, or where it would go, and now I have a pretty clear picture...I just need to get it onto the page.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

Whether or not it had been intentional, Nagato had lied to everyone who'd gone to rescue Naruto. They would never learn that, though. The warning alarm that signaled an approaching invasion had been sounded. No civilians filled its streets, the merchants' stalls were empty. It was a fool's errand to do anything but take cover. Konoha was ready, and waiting.

Ready for war.

Waiting to die.

Though some had turned against him, none of the Anbu would dare to disobey Kakashi's commands after his reinstatement, and his placement as the official head of the black ops organization. His status was second only to the Hokage, and as there was no acting Hokage...it left them in his charge.

The blanket of silence had draped itself across the landscape, when the sound of drums echoed from afar. Onoki was going to be present, then. War-drums had last seen use in the Warring Clans era, when the Sandaime Tsuchikage had grown to adulthood, and they were used as a bold proclamation; Onoki didn't care whether or not his enemies knew that he was coming to claim their lives. The stone inside his heart had been raised to a molten core, and that heat threatened to consume them all.

From above, a hail of boulders rained down on Konoha. They were stopped by the domed barrier surrounding the village, and the surge of Raiton chakra that had run through it. When no more rocks came hurtling down, it was clear that Onoki had abandoned the strategy.

Nobody had been bold enough to attempt wiping out a hidden village since Uzushio's destruction, and that had taken three villages to accomplish. All the same, nobody had ever discovered what had happened to those raiding parties; they had been killed before making it back to their homes, possibly even inside Uzushio's walls.

If Konoha was going to end, then it would follow its ally's example, and take all attackers with it. The first burst of jutsu rammed against the northern gate, and every shinobi in the vicinity braced themselves.

From the Hokage Tower, Danzo looked down upon the village he'd grown up in. The hat of the Hokage was in his hands; his eyes left the soon-to-be battlefield, staring briefly at the symbol of status that his brother-in-arms had worn for so many years. With a drawn-out sigh, he set it down on the table behind him, before throwing off his cloak. Armor covered his entire body, the last set that Jie Daiya had made before his death in the Second Great War. The design left no gaps in its protection, wheel-grooves providing the fluidity of motion that Danzo appreciated in his joints. It covered him all the way from the soles of his feet to the edge of his chin, and the metal almost seemed to mesh with his skin as he breathed.

The men of the Shimura line had all died in the line of duty. Danzo was not only the longest-lived of his clan, but his age was more than the past three generations combined. Whether or not that gap continued to increase, he would do his duty.

He would crack open the bones of Konoha's enemies, and he would savor the marrow.

The gate burst open, and Iwagakure's first wave was slaughtered as they ran in. The purpose behind their deaths had been served, however, as their comrades marched over their former comrades' still-fresh corpses to begin killing their hated enemies.

But where was Kumo?

The western gate's explosion from a single punch, thanks to the Raikage, answered that question. The clans and general forces hadn't been prepared for that eventuality, their forces disproportionately distributed toward the main point of assault.

Danzo had been ready. Though most of the Kumogakure strike force had escaped, Danzo's pre-made seals had trapped more than a dozen of them, immobilizing them as Ne snipers eliminated them.

Still, those preliminary measures weren't designed to forestall an army of that size. It was like trying to kill a whale with Katon techniques; theoretically possible, but unlikely enough to dismiss the idea from plausibility. The real battle would be fought inside of the city proper, and there was one advantage to being ninja: the buildings would remain mostly intact, providing cover for both sides...though only one force had the home-field advantage.

Not that it was much help when they were facing down an enemy whose force numbered between one and a half times their own...possibly double their size.

Danzo opened the window in front of him, quietly thanking Orochimaru for the medical procedures he'd endured. Hashirama's flesh gave him a semblance of his more youthful years, the Sharingan in his arm and eye providing precognitive feedback that allowed him to dodge a _Doryuheki_ and a shotgunned Raiton technique whose name he missed. It was an easy thing, to fight and kill...it was a hard thing, to die.

 _Beware of old men, in a profession where most die young._ The saying went. Danzo had done a good job of making sure it remained something to say, and advice to heed. Though he'd lost his eye and arm, he'd kept his life, and built a covert force of killing machines from the ground up. With the replacements he'd taken on, Danzo dared to say that he was stronger than he'd been so many years ago.

"Stay behind me, Hanabi-san." He spoke plainly; there was no need for orders in this place or time. The safest place in Konoha, right now, was by his side.

In three short motions, four enemies around him fell dead, and a fifth had taken the bloody kunai in her throat. During the First Great War, Danzo had turned knife-work into artistry with his assassinations. Smooth forms flowed into one another, the kind of grace that belied the power behind each blow.

Kunai weren't all that the wizened shinobi could bandy about, however. His hands moved with a speed that mocked his body's age, and he released three _Shinkuudan_ toward his enemies. Watching as their connection ripped limbs from their owners' bodies, there was no expression on Danzo's face...there was always another target just around the corner, another enemy waiting to strike.

"Raiton: Kushi Kaminari!" Danzo yelled.

The Spit Lightning technique did exactly what it was named after, and the Konoha elder sent a bolt of electricity from his mouth through the heart of an Iwa-nin down the street.

Danzo remembered war. This was what it felt like. All that was missing were-

A terrifying, soul-wrenching roar shook the battlefield as a five-tailed...thing...towered over them. Danzo cursed himself; as soon as he'd thought about Jinchuriki, one had appeared.

All hope was lost. They couldn't fight against two armies _and_ a Biju.

* * *

The demonic shout startled Zabuza, but he wasn't too alarmed. After all, when Mei had sent them out, she'd made certain to include Utakata in their group. As soon as she'd heard about Iwa and Kumo's offensive, she'd prepared the majority of her former rebellion and sent them out to lend Konoha aid.

"A beautiful day to die, huh, Ao? Just look at it. Blue skies, not a cloud in sight, sun shining down on yesterday's snow, strongly enough to blind anyone too stupid to look up...it almost makes me want to sing."

"If so much as a single stanza leaves your lips, Zabuza, I swear to the dead gods..."

"Calm down, you ass-faced moron. Utakata, you know what to do, right? Go get that dolphin...horse...thing. What the fuck kind of creator fuses a dolphin with a horse? What kind of...it doesn't need legs if it's a sea creature! It doesn't need fins if it's a land creature! Get your shit together, mother nature!"

Ao took it back. At least when Zabuza sang, they didn't have to put up with his mouth.

Running up the side of Konoha's eastern wall, Zabuza's chakra-boosted leap from the top cleared two houses before he landed on a third.

"Oh, it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day in the neighborhood..." The swordsman laughed. Taking five long senbon out of the pouch on his hip, Zabuza created a blanket of mist around a small cluster of Kumo-nin and threw them.

He'd taught Haku how to aim, and the boy had taken to it like a fish in water, but Zabuza never let the boy get any ideas. As unhinged as he might be, he was still the best assassin Kirigakure had. His perfection of the _Muon Satsujin,_ the Silent Killing, was the bread and butter he relied on. When the mist dissipated to reveal six ninja with senbon through their brains, the _Kirigakure no Oni_ smiled beneath his mask.

If it's not broken, don't fix it.

A tower of swirling sand was visible in the distance, and that smile grew wider. Zabuza still remembered, quite clearly, the sight of the Ichibi as it raged against its stronger sibling. The desert people had a name for a wind demon, one who shared its domain with Shukaku; it was _Gaara._

He didn't have time to ponder the Kazekage's approach, however. The situation at hand was more pressing, and the Kubikiri was whining in his hands as it hungered for blood.

It would have its fill, he promised.

* * *

Gaara's eyes had changed colors, pupil-less and a blue that shone with ethereal power. One of the great Shai-Hulud had been found clinging to life on the desert's outskirts, a clear omen: no worm was ever so close to the forest's edge.

They had drowned it, and from the great beast had come the waters of life. Pure and untainted by the past that surrounded the practice, the Godaime Kazekage had proceeded to drink the mixture of water with the resultant materials from Shai-Hulud's biochemical process. It was said to occasionally give women the gift of future sight, but all men who had attempted the ritual had been slain by its aftereffects.

Those men had not been Gaara. His mother's love protected him, as she always had.

Gaara understood his place. He was _Muad'Dib_ , the desert rat who scurried from place to place while larger things went on around him. And the Kwisatz Haderach...had yet to appear.

Understandable. To appear once on this earth was a wearisome thing...to exist twice was a burden of repetition. And to come again a third time, in nigh-immortal glory, was effectively the same as asking to be killed.

Death would come.

He had made this trek alone, in secret. The worm's sight guided him onward, toward bloody land and bloody sky. He saw the scene unfurl before his eyes, bodies trampled underfoot as demons engaged one another. Was this the present? The future?

It simply was.

The defiant, demonic power within him rumbled. His holy sight, a gift from the long-slain God Emperor of the Dunes, would come to its end soon. And then...then, the demon within would shine brighter than the demon without. Violence begat violence, and death begat death. So would Sabaku no Gaara's passage be marked by sand as he traveled.

And then, finally, he was there. Utakata had transformed already, fighting against both the Yonbi and the Gobi. It was in poor taste to leave an ally to those odds, especially when an enemy's mercy had saved the Rokubi Jinchuriki's life during Kirigakure's civil war.

Utakata had remained quiet on the subject of his friend and curse-brother's death. While he held the pragmatism to say nothing aloud out of respect for the new regime, an inner hatred drove him to lash out at every opportunity. Now, he had targets who could take the punishment he would give them.

Gaara understood that. He, too, was full of hate.

 _Shukaku, I'm going to need power. As much as you can give me._

 _ **You already have it, Mahdi. At this point, you and I...we are no different, merely two demons who share the same body. I am the dunes that mankind walk upon, and you are the Coriolis storm that rescinds all life.**_

Gaara didn't bother questioning the tanuki's words. He understood the meaning, if not the terminology. When he drank from the waters of life and survived, as no male had before, he ceased to be anything akin to mortal man. That was the way of it.

He didn't question the why of it. Reasoning was for noncombatants, and Gaara was no idle bystander in war.

The energy running through him was half demonic, and half...something else. Not the chakra he'd grown used to, not something he could identify as holy, and not his own. This was the power of the creature he had been named for as his mother died in childbirth, the strength of _Gaara._ This was the will of the desert.

It swirled around his arm, and as sand began to mold into the shape of his body, he threw a solid punch to the Yonbi's right shoulder. Though it would heal in seconds, Gaara clearly heard the bones snap.

It took a demon to fight a demon, but Gaara had always been more than a Jinchuriki; he filled the stereotype of a demon container, lashing out in violence toward anyone he believed might threaten him. It was the same thing Shukaku acknowledged: he was two demons, the raw force of sand dunes guided by his fraternal alliance and salvaged by his mother's love.

His sibling was the Godslayer, but the strength of one demon didn't devalue the power of another.

Shukaku's form was distorted and elongated, black-and-tawny body almost seeming to replace its fur with segmented scale-rings. As the fused Shura and Biju demons took to the battle in earnest, a furnace-like heat erupted from its mouth when it roared.

* * *

"Inu-taicho! We're losing ground to Iwa's troops, the Tsuchikage is here!"

Kakashi turned his head to look at the Anbu who'd spoken, one who wore the Gama mask. His movements were slow and methodical, his gait differing from the traditional Anbu walking method of balls-toes-heels. That balance of movement allowed for a nearly complete silence, perfect for assassinations or reconnaissance in the dead of night...but there was no need for stealth here. Not for someone as high-profile as _Sharingan no Kakashi,_ the master of a thousand arts.

He took his mask off, hands curling into fists as his lupine stride gave the appearance of limping. _Horkew Kamuy_ would sing of this day, on earth or in hell.

Three kunai came towards him from three different directions, and he picked them out of the air as he continued his advance.

"Kakashi, what are you-" Yugito didn't finish her sentence, too shocked at what she saw. Kakashi had raised his hitai-ate from both eyes, and a Sharingan spun in each one.

The visions from his right eye...the memories it couldn't erase, despite its new owner, tormented Kakashi to no end. Obito's life had been one of disaster, one calamity after another. First they had befallen him, and then he had become their architect. Most heinous of all was the adoption of Uchiha Madara's name, and the furthered cause of annihilated life.

All the secrets Obito had ever kept, all the knowledge he held, was within Kakashi's grasp. The long-dead ghost of the Uchiha clan had come back to grant Kakashi one final gift, that he might be his teammate's sight forever. His heart burned, for he was born into the Will of Fire and an inadvertent inheritor of the Curse of Hatred.

At long, long last, Kakashi could give his brother the vengeance he always sought to carve into the world. The Anbu rallied behind him, words unnecessary to spur them on; you didn't just let your comrades die alone.

The _Byakiba_ blade was free from its sheath, a brilliantly white tanto that posessed an edge no wear could dull. The last memento of Hatake Sakumo, the legacy of the White Wolf of Konoha.

The son was _Horkew Kamuy,_ the Howling God, and he would let his father's tooth taste blood once again.

Such was the way of wolves.


	59. The Death of the Mountain

**New chapter! Have fun with it. Or don't. Things are moving, but I'm finally going to reveal some of the story's mechanics in this chapter, with a little help from Kurama.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. tastybigsexy: Oh, don't worry, Gaara isn't going to die. I take it you haven't read _Dune._**

 **2\. Drake Vallion: Yes and no. Yes, be wary, but old age has its drawbacks, and Kakashi has a shiny new weapon in the form of the short-range _Kamui._ Hope you won't get too upset.**

 **3\. OneLunchMan: Grasped, or found? There's a needle in there somewhere, friend...seek, and ye shall find.**

 **4\. zafnak: If it's any consolation...no, never mind, there's not a whole lot of consoling I can give after what I pulled on Gaara. But yeah, I went there.**

 **5\. RahvinsCage: Then, hopefully, you'll like this one too, since it does a bit more with exposing the backstory of this canon.**

 **6\. Saint of vice koncor: Worry not! A new chapter is here.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"If what I think is going on, is going on...it had better not be." Tayuya snarled.

Karin drew back.

"You're on edge, Tayuya-chan. Calm down. Nothing is going on...I promise." Naruto attempted to placate his girlfriend. "If I had a week, I couldn't explain what the hell just happened."

The redhead's face softened, transitioning from her violent scowl to a more subdued...shame?

"Sorry." She mumbled. "I just...it's been so long, and I finally saw you again, and then this happened, and..."

Naruto's hug was warm, and his arms wrapped around Tayuya with a familiar tightness that she hadn't felt in far too long. She was content to stay there for a moment, all her fears and worries seeming to melt away as she basked in the furnace of his body heat.

By the time they rejoined the others, it was _Tenten_ that was missing now.

"What happened? Why did she-"

"It's her father." Neji turned his head. "Higurashi."

Naruto's eyes went wide, natural energy flooding into his body as he searched for his sister-orphan. Nobody was fast enough to stop him...and nobody would have, even if they could. To the foreign ninja, it was the sign of a leader who cared. To those born in Konoha, it was no secret that Jie Higurashi had been some sort of father figure to Naruto as well; he'd never stayed the night, never eaten the man's food without first being offered, but you couldn't choose your family.

The sight that greeted his eyes-that-were-not was heartbreaking: Higurashi had an enormous bore through his back, clearly the work of the corpse in front of him.

Naruto didn't want to ask what had happened. He didn't need to, either. The fact that Tenten's foster father had fallen face-down meant that he'd taken the attack head-on, rather than being struck from behind. He'd protected someone, probably Tenten, from dying...and chose to go in her place. That was how Higurashi had operated.

The old man had always held belief that he'd die in the honorable way, the Jie way. In battle, fighting until his last breath and defending his comrades.

That sort of _modus operandi_ was a little too morbid for Naruto's taste. Better to get everyone out alive, no matter what had to be done to achieve that. Besides, if he was going to fight for anything, he wouldn't choose to fight for death. He'd fight for his friends and loved ones. As Haku said, "his precious people."

"He...he was...protecting me. Sakura had just finished healing Sai, and he tried to warn me but I wasn't fast enough and then dad jumped in front of me and...and..."

Naruto caught Tenten as her knees gave out from underneath her, the combined weight of her body and weapons not enough to make him flinch.

"Don't blame yourself. He died to make sure you were alive to see me again." He told her. It wasn't that Naruto didn't wish he could have talked to Higurashi one last time, but Tenten was more important to him.

There was nothing she could have done, despite her thoughts to the contrary. Naruto was no mind-reader, but he _was_ a, "people person," when he wanted to be. Given the information she'd told him, it wasn't a stretch to assume she was blaming herself. Death was a hard thing to face, a large concept to process even at the most removed viewpoints. To have a family member die, and to believe it was your fault...it was enough to make the grieving unnecessarily difficult. She couldn't have saved him, and she couldn't have prevented the circumstances that led to his death.

The sooner Tenten realized that, the better off she'd be.

"Come on, we need to go back to the others. Take his weapon scroll, and move on."

"How can you _say_ that? You know how mu-"

"Ninja don't get marked graves." The burning glow of Naruto's "eyes" was unforgiving. "Either we die in our beds after we retire, or we die in battle and get our names put on a metal slab at Training Ground Seven. I don't think there's a square mile on earth that isn't touched by some poor sucker's corpse, left unburied and rotting for scavengers. Hate me if you have to, Ten-chan, but we need to move."

Tenten pushed herself away from her brother-figure, sighing as she picked up the scroll on her father's belt. Naruto didn't resist when she gave him one of the worst gut-punches he'd ever received in his life.

He knew that he deserved it.

* * *

"I've heard a great many things about you, Hatake Kakashi. Trained by the _Kiroii Senko,_ inheritor of the Sharingan, creator of a Raiton technique labelled as the deadliest in history...but none of those things, alone, are enough to impress or frighten me. The most fearsome thing about you, in my eyes, is that you are your father's child. The son of the White Wolf."

Onoki was levitating, his eyes level with Kakashi's completed set of Sharingan. Their forces were gathered behind them, well inside of the city and yet firmly on the northern side. Konoha's interior was nearly eighty miles, inside of its circular walls, and that wasn't counting the depths of Ne's underground labyrinth. The battle would likely be prolonged for at least a day, if not more. Kakashi knew that.

So he wouldn't bother stalling for time.

"There's no use in praising the dead. I thought you came here to kill us all?" Kakashi's face, half-hidden by the mask at his mouth, betrayed no emotion.

"What happens will happen. The timetable of your demise is meaningless when we're counting seconds instead of years. But, if you'd rather get on with it, then I'll save you the effort of breathing."

That was it, then.

It was the responsibility of Iwagakure, that Obito had been separated from his team. That Madara had found him, twisted him...killed Rin, to turn him to villainy. It was the responsibility of Onoki, who had led his village since before the First Great War. The shriveled old man had more blood on his hands, effectively, than anyone else alive.

 _Horkew Kamuy_ would see that justice was done.

As the world twisted around Kakashi's body, the space around Onoki warped as well. It was too easy, in the Anbu commander's eyes, to play out the events that would happen next. He had stepped into the world of the _Kamui,_ his body untouchable and invisible in the physical world. Yet here he was, still able to interact with it, and in a few simple motions...

He appeared behind Onoki, his hand buried within the Tsuchikage's back. He was on an even score with his student now; Naruto was hailed as the _Kage Hoiru_ for his defeat of Gaara two years ago and the death of Yagura during Kirigakure's civil war. Kakashi matched it: he'd killed Tsunade, and now the Sandaime Tsuchikage.

Onoki turned to see his killer, and as he looked into Kakashi's eyes, he saw the red-and-black wheels that had damned him from his youth. As blood came up from his throat, and out of his mouth, one of Uchiha Madara's first victims finally breathed his last.

As his levitation technique dispelled in death, the Great Fence-Sitter slipped off of Kakashi's arm and onto the ground. Stunned silence befell the Iwa-nin gathered behind him, but Kakashi wouldn't turn around yet. He had to give his command, first.

"Anbu, advance."

He would need time to recover. Not being the original wielder of the eyes held problems in the form of severe drawbacks: the chakra drained by keeping them active was far more taxing than it would be for a true-born Uchiha, and he _couldn't deactivate_ _them._ Rather than exhausting himself to the point of negating the Sharingan's activation, any overexertion could end up killing him.

All the same, he'd gained a sort of invincibility with the short-range _Kamui_ that his left eye didn't possess. And in that other world, that realm that was...reality and a half, Kakashi settled on the idea...in that place, he rested more quickly, and could return to battle even faster.

That was the place Obito had been, after the cave collapsed around him. The _Kamui_ had saved him, and now it could save Kakashi. Though the dead Uchiha had come to blame Konoha for his fate, Kakashi knew the truth, and could enact vengeance on those responsible. Justice had been a long time coming.

The blood on _Yama no Onoki's_ hands was washing away.

* * *

Smoke was rising in the distance. A day's travel to the southwest, in the direction of Konoha.

"No." Naruto denied the sight before him as he stood above-ground for the first time in months. "We need to hurry! If you fall behind, then catch up!"

"Naruto-san, what's-" Chojuro didn't get to finish before Shino interrupted him.

"That's Konoha." The Aburame heir noted concisely.

Words didn't need to be spoken anymore, as everyone moved at full speed. They were tired and worn ragged, hurting inside and out...but they pressed on. When your friend was in danger, you hurried to their side. When your _family_ was in danger, there wasn't a chance to excuse yourself with, "sorry, I was late."

Even if they would only be marching to their graves, they had resolved to march.

Chojuro was the first to lag behind, the weight of his weapon too much to continue with at such a fast pace. Haku failed to join his countryman, accustomed to long treks due to his years accompanying Zabuza from one job to another. Temari and Kankuro had done the least amount of fighting, neither having access to many small-scale techniques that could still be used against multiple opponents. In the sky, on Temari's battle-fan, they flew at the head of the pack.

The trio of Jinchuriki weren't far behind, trees seeming to blur together into a long tunnel with a far-away exit. Sai and Lee were the next in line, followed by Team Gai, and Kiba at the head of Team Kurenai. The Ino-Shika-Chou trio were moving quickly, but Ino and Shikamaru's joint reluctance to leave Chouji behind meant that they were all starting to lag.

Naruto pressed on. He'd been given back Tayuya, his teammates...his family. He couldn't lose Konoha, now that he'd finally be able to return to it. As he continued on, in order to keep himself from falling prey to his feelings, he entered the seal-world.

* * *

Naruto was thrown off by the stillness around him in the seal's boundaries, used to a leaky pipe dripping down to the surface of the water he waded through. The Yin and Yang halves of the Kyuubi sat before Naruto, staring him down.

 **"You're here."** Yin noted. **"For what purpose?"**

"The visions I had, when Rei and Kouga transformed...no, more than that. When we first came to Uzushio, and when I said the words of the Jie forging song, I had some too. What were they?"

Both giant foxes looked at one another, and then back to Naruto.

 **"Memories of a time to come. Prophecies for a time long gone. Get ready, because this history lesson is going to be a long one."** Yang said. **"A long time ago, it was speculated that the nature of time was cyclical. This isn't the case, but that _is_ partially correct. Antal Dara, the last god alive, is the keeper of tales and the guardian of the boundary...but he likes to play the same story out, time and time again. To fulfill that story's requirements, he needs to fill all of the roles. It was his judgement that made the High King of the Heavenly Court destroy all portals to Makai, preventing the summoning of another demon who could bring us back. That's a flaw of high-strength demons, but I'm getting side-tracked."**

 **"The point is, with all ten Biju sealed permanently into the world of men, Antal Dara had some of the characters he needed. However...this is where things start to become complicated."** Yin took over the explanation, and Naruto braced himself. **"Until a hundred years ago, because Antal Dara is the guardian of the spaces between realms, there was no way to prove that there are multiples of him, or that there is only one. On the other hand, we can say with certainty that you are neither the first of your role, or the first Naruto, in this world. This ties into those visions you've had, only one of which hasn't involved you."**

"The one in Uzushio?"

 **"Correct. All the rest are of you...not as you know yourself, perhaps, but as the story knows you: the cursed child. There are plenty of other epithets, but that's the one which most commonly refers to you. In each retelling of the story, you hold a bond with the Kyuubi no Kitsune...me. Us. This is because, in the original incarnation of the story, you were one of the ten demons...or, at least, the Naruto of another world was. Antal Dara's Labyrinth, that maze you passed through in your familial homeland, acts as a walkway between worlds. In a world where you lose at the end of the story, my suspicion is that Antal Dara sends you to another world as a chance to redeem yourself...in the distant past. The Naruto from that world had gained enough power, and used enough demonic energy, that he became the Jubi himself. Then, he was sent to this world...but, as a demon, he was sent to Makai."**

The dripping returned, in a far corner of the room, but Naruto's concentration didn't break as he listened to the story unfold.

 **"Your children, illegitimate though they may be, carry that demonic taint in their blood. It gives them power. Power that even Antal Dara can't predict or control, so he sends them into the Labyrinth to await their destined time...they are the time-lost, the Rikudo Sennin and her elder brother, though in this iteration their ages have been switched. Through your son's blood, the Uzumaki and the Jie are both your descendants, and through your daughter you sired the Senju and the Uchiha...not that you'll ever develop their talents."** The foxes both gave a short laugh at Naruto's expense.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm an idiot fuck-up. Get on with it, asshole."

 **"The vision you had in Suna was from the same time period. We fought together against the armies of men who were loyal to the gods who'd trapped us in this world, until you realized that it wasn't the _humans_ who were the problem. We set our plan into action: you would sacrifice your life to destroy heaven, and force the gods to remain in the human world. I would hunt the gods down and kill them, and grow stronger for it. Your children...reformed mankind, trying to lead them into the godless age with peace and prosperity, preaching a concept called _Ninshu._ It didn't work."**

"How come?"

 **"The way of mankind is violence. They took chakra, and turned it into a weapon of war. This led to hundreds of years of battle, what you know as the Warring Clans Era. And then, when that time period had nearly ended, I found my answer as to whether or not there are multiple iterations of Antal Dara. He was the _one_ god that I couldn't defeat, the only one that I couldn't destroy. You understand that I use Zenton techniques, correct?"**

"Yeah, but I don't know what they are or how you use them."

 **"The only way to gain access to Zenton techniques is to kill a practitioner, and the only Zenton users before me were the gods. The Antal Dara meddling with this world is not the first I've met, because the original was killed by the only man who ever made me fear for my life. Only one human has ever gained access to Zenton, and it was because he killed the only god that I couldn't. He killed you, enslaved me, and very nearly destroyed the world."**

"Who?"

 **"The oathbreaker. The tree-burner. Uchiha Madara."**

* * *

Danzo moved with all the fluidity of a panther. Hanabi had run away, hiding beneath collapsed rubble; a Ne agent had grabbed her, taking her into the underground domain that Danzo had called his home for more years than he liked to admit. The Hyuuga girl would survive.

He did his best to contain the fighting, but there were too many Kumo shinobi for him to keep the battle from spilling deeper into the city. His retreat was tactical, and unforced. A paper shuriken flew by, cutting the skin of Danzo's mouth as it flew by, and he looked up to see the vengeful face of a woman he'd met a long time ago.

"Hm...what was your name? Konan? That sounds correct. One of Jiraiya's three illegitimate students, a founding member of the Akatsuki. So, then, have you come to kill this old man?"

"Did you kill Jiraiya-sensei?"

Her eyes were wide with fury, nostrils flaring, not willing to be patient. She would kill. She would be killed. At this point, Konan didn't care whether or not she would avenge her lover or join him in death.

"His killer is already dead, unfortunately. However, if you seek the others responsible...you're looking for Hatake Kakashi."

A problem solved, no matter which way the dice fell. Either she would remove Kakashi from being a nuisance in the future, or he would eliminate a member of the Akatsuki and thin their numbers further. However he looked at it, Danzo came away with a victory on the issue.

Had she come alone, seeking only retaliation for her sensei's murder?

It didn't matter. She flew away, not seeing the cut on Danzo's face heal itself before he turned to fight his foes once more. Outside the village walls, demons screamed in pain and rage as they fought one another for supremacy.

Danzo had never fought for glory. He did not wish for honor, or superiority in battle, or even for longevity. All that he had ever asked of himself was that he be useful to his homeland...to serve dutifully, until his dying breaths.

What was the battle cry of the Jie, again?

"Tai'shar Moumoku!" He shouted, preparing a new _Shinkuu_ technique.

 _True blood of the sightless._ A strange rallying cry, to be sure, but Danzo believed in tradition. There was power in those words.

In the time it took for his enemies to find him, Danzo had already vanished.


	60. Return of the Beast

**No, I'm not dead! Surprisingly.**

 **Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out. One thing led to another, life kept getting in the way, I worked seventy hours in five days...I've just been too caught up in the real world, and my problems therein. But I didn't forget about you guys! Here's a new chapter!**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. OneLunchMan: Thanks! And...yeah, I figured it was time for a little exposition. Maybe a little out of place with the rest of the chapter and the surrounding happenings, but I figure, take what I can get. Or, in this case, what I can make.**

 **2\. Saint of vice koncor: That was sort of the idea. Danzo was never really given much opportunity, in canon, to show himself as anything but an antagonist; conversely, Jiraiya and Tsunade were never really portrayed as anything but heroic, despite their numerous flaws. So, I tried to rearrange that.**

 **3\. Drake Vallion: Yes and no. Keep in mind, Kakashi isn't an Uchiha, so he can only put so much use into his eyes before they become strained and need to recover. Kakashi knows that, so he won't do more than is absolutely necessary. The short-range _Kamui,_ I'm assuming uses little to no chakra as long as he doesn't travel, so that's the only Sharingan technique he can spam.**

 **4\. The bard: Believe it or not, I purposefully wrote my sentence (the one you used for an example) that way. While it's true that my writing style isn't always one that flows smoothly, I try to make sure that there's a purpose behind the way I do things that other people might consider mistakes. Now, that's not always true, sometimes I legitimately just screw up...but I try to let that happen as little as possible.**

 **Next review gets the Homestuck number, 413, so good luck and godspeed.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

Naruto poured everything he had into the run toward Konoha. If he could travel from Uzushio to Kumo in the length of a single day, then he could make it from one part of Hi no Kuni to another in the span of an hour. Even Tayuya and Yugito were more than a mile behind him, a testament to both his speed and endurance. He could see the gates of the citadel before him, the northern entryway to Konoha broken in.

 _No._

Above him, four demons roared, each one tired and sluggish in their movements. What was Gaara doing here, or Utakata? Had Suna and Kiri come to Konoha's aid?

He left his brothers' struggles to their own keeping, and as he stepped inside of the city he saw bodies piled atop one another. Konoha, Iwa, Kumo...in death, they were all just lumps of meat, not something to be identified until later.

The Uzushio headband across his brow was littered with nicks and chips, worn proudly and in defiance of his clan's demise. His blond hair had grown long, uncut during his months of imprisonment, stretching down to his shoulderblades with its spikes. He threw off his jacket; there was no sense in destroying it.

Uzumaki Naruto had come home.

His welcoming committee was a mass of Iwa-nin, holding their ground against what looked to be...the entire registry of Konoha's Anbu. In his childhood on the streets, Naruto had spent fifteen years avoiding the Anbu while he stole, murdered, and pranked. How ironic, that the first thing he did would be to head right to them?

The _Rasengan_ buried itself into his chosen enemy's back. With a single hand motion, a dozen of his Senjutsu-boosted _Kage Bunshin_ appeared to fight alongside him. Together, they called on his Uzumaki heritage: the chains of chakra that bound his foes in place, unable to move.

Unable to escape, as the Anbu cut them down. When their corpses fell, leaving him in plain sight, more than one of the masked shinobi recoiled at the state of his eyes. A deep red was glowing in the sockets where his eyes should have been.

"Naruto?" A Hebi-masked Anbu questioned.

"...it's been a while, huh?" Naruto grinned, though his pointed ears and clawed nails were mildly off-putting to the gathered ninja. "Point me where I need to go."

There was no mistaking those whisker-marks on his cheeks, the sign of someone raised on a steady diet of demonic chakra. Naruto had been connected to the Kyuubi's power for his entire life, minus the few minutes that the fox had been free between its Jinchuriki. The falx in his hand was proof of that vile relation, and the strength it gave him.

Not waiting for more than a pointing finger, Naruto moved deeper into the city. He didn't need to hide in the shadows or the back-alleys of his youth; he had the Anbu behind him. He would be triumphant.

Then, he saw the robes that he'd learned to hate and fear. A black cloak with red clouds, though its wearer was idle. She scanned the crowds of ninja below her, apparently unable to find the person she was hunting.

A member of the Akatsuki was here, in a place with five Jinchuriki and two more on the way. That would make seven of them, and they were all worn down from fighting. That was too large a risk to be taken, by anyone's measure. He intentionally threw a kunai wide from her place, its blade passing in front of her and grabbing her attention.

Before he could react, she was behind him.

"So at least one ninja from Konoha still has his honor...Naruto."

He turned, and froze when he recognized her.

"Konan? What are you-"

"Didn't you ever wonder how Jiraiya-sensei got so much information on the Akatsuki? I was his informant. My love for him was greater than my loyalty to the organization I helped to start."

She was angry. Hurt. She was looking for the person responsible for causing that pain; Naruto understood.

He had killed thirty people, long before he graduated from the academy, for the pain they'd caused him.

"Who are you looking for?"

"Jiraiya-sensei's killer is dead, but someone else is responsible as well. When I find Hatake Kakashi, I'm going to kill him."

"Ero-sennin is dead? You're bullshitting me."

"After you were captured, Konoha plunged into a civil war, and only recently recovered. He was among the dead. The Hokage died with him, killed by Kakashi."

"You've gotta be joking...right?"

He ran the information through his head. He knew how many people were dissatisfied with Tsunade's rule as Hokage, so if her direct actions put them in a position without their Jinchuriki, a major weapon and arguably one of the strongest ninja in any hidden village...it was possible that the tension could explode. Kakashi knew how covert search-and-destroy operations worked, he would know that they were normally assigned to Anbu or teams of Jounin rather than a squad that was half-Chunin.

The only difficult part for Naruto to accept was that Kakashi had been the one to kill Tsunade, if she was really dead. The man whose mantra was _"_ _those who abandon their comrades are worse than garbage,"_ committing regicide?

But, then, he'd had his fair share of rage-fueled battles against Jiraiya. He knew how easy it was to give into violence, at the moment when a choice could be made.

"No." Konan's denial of the fantasy was absolute.

"Even so, I can't just let you kill my sensei because that perverted geezer is gone. Like it or not, you're in the Akatsuki and I'm a Jinchuriki, and since I'm planning on becoming the Rokudaime...I can't just let you kill my friends."

"Friends? This village has nothing for you, Naruto. You _know_ that they hate you. Why are you so intent on seeking approval from the people who will never give it to you?"

It was a question he'd had seventeen years to answer.

It was a question he'd never been asked.

"People can change. Everyone called me a failure, an idiot, a demon, a useless burden...for things I couldn't control. I couldn't help the fact that my parents died in the Kyuubi attack. I can't change the fact that in order to survive on the streets, I needed to steal on a daily basis. When people tried to beat me for coming to buy from them, I remembered their faces, and I came back to kill them all. When I did that, I proved them right about me...but I didn't want them to be right. I _don't_ want them to be right. I'm not a monster, and I don't deserve to be treated like one! When I'm Hokage, they'll _HAVE_ to respect me! Even the ones who hate me!"

That was the best revenge he could give himself. Though the ninja of the village had all come to respect his strength and admire his tenacity, especially against enemies of Gaara and Yagura's caliber, many of Konoha's civilians had never truly forgiven him for the murders he committed as a child.

The memory of the forest was long. The memory of its people was longer still.

Konan was silent for a moment, but neither ninja allowed the other to pass.

"You're no different from Nagato, then. After Uzushio was destroyed, his parents fled to Ame with him, only to be cut down before his eyes...all of us saw it. Just like you, he was born with a power that made others hate him, and all he wanted was peace. You are one of the stepping-stones to that peace."

"Another Uzumaki?"

"He is. However, that's nothing but ill news for you. You know him better as the leader of the Akatsuki, Pein." Two paper shuriken were in Konan's hands. "Now, will you let me find Kakashi, or do we need to do things the unpleasant way?"

Naruto snorted.

"Unpleasant for you, maybe. You know who you're talking to, right? Just because I spent a while in captivity doesn't mean I'm not the strongest person here."

Whether or not it was his ego talking, Konan knew that he had the strength to back it up. Fortunately, so did she; the Akatsuki was composed entirely of S-class ninja. Just because she couldn't have Nagato or Itachi's eyes, or the inhuman strength of Kakuzu and Kisame, didn't mean that she had attained that rank without merit.

She was just as much a ruthless killer as the rest of them, and if she had to destroy her dead sensei's last hope, then she would do it. to gain the chance to avenge him.

Naruto wasn't fast enough to avoid one of the shuriken, but the real surprise came when his blood flew out to form the sign of an explosive seal. Unable to dodge or run in time, it detonated at point-blank range.

"Son of a bitch." He muttered, the Kyuubi's chakra healing him from the damage he'd taken in the blast. "But really, you thought that an explosion was gonna be enough to get rid of me?"

"Of course not." Konan said from beside him, her hands transforming into paper blades as she sliced into his intestines. "But it was enough."

* * *

Gaara sighed, mentally, as the battle continued to rage. He and the rest of the Jinchuriki had moved further out into the forests northeast of Konoha, a cleared swath of land where lush forestry had been growing for more lifetimes than most would care to count.

This was not his place to die. This was not his place to suffer.

With a roar, he began the maelstrom that would end this battle between demons. The breeze around them picked up speed, a wall of wind that could shear flesh from bone and shred jutsu to strings of chakra; this was the ultimate defense of Shukaku, carving into the earth as the sky was torn asunder.

The heat around him, from the Yonbi, was cooled quickly by the Gobi and Rokubi. Neither water-based Biju could stand the boiling magma for long enough, and that meant Gaara had all the advantage he needed.

They were walled in by his wind tunnel, with nowhere to run or hide. The ground beneath them was drenched with his chakra, and he began to twist it just the same as he had in his battle against Kimimaro, two years ago.

A single grain of sand, in a whirlwind this fierce, could be lethal. Creating a dust storm in such a tight vicinity...there was no guarantee that he or Utakata would go unharmed, but it was a surer bet for victory than the all-out battle they'd been waging for the last hour. It needed to end, and he had seen the way. To stay upon the path that all his kin had tread before him, he would need to kill.

Blood would quench his mother's thirst.

As the sand beneath him broke through the ground, shooting up before spiraling into the wind around them, Gaara laughed. For his brother-in-curse, he would do whatever needed to be done. This was what he could do.

The desert soil tore through the Yonbi and Gobi, their bodies ripped to shreds as Han and Roshi tried and failed to maintain their demonic forms. From there, the battle was decided.

 **"You did well."** The demon hissed, its sand-and-wind hybrid form as menacing as it was surreal. **"Now die with honor."**

He felt a spike in his back, and a twisted voice announcing his fate. A deep blue color flashed before his eyes, and he failed to understand the words that had been spoken; all that he heard was gilded, hollow laughter.

Darkness fell on the Jinchuriki.

Darkness fell on man.

* * *

"Hatake Kakashi." Konan proclaimed her target openly, standing before the wolf-masked man with hatred boiling in her eyes.

"You...your name is Konan, isn't it? Jiraiya's lover, and we met at the Chunin Exams in Suna, didn't we?" The words were for show. Obito's eyes remembered all that he needed to know about the blue-haired angel and her techniques.

"It's your fault that sensei is dead."

"It's nobody's fault." Kakashi retorted. "He chose his own fate...just like Yahiko did, right?"

He dodged the paper blades with precision, each one passing closely enough that he could feel the wind on his cheeks.

"How do you-"

"Know that name?" He finished the sentence for her. "I was there when Hanzo betrayed you."

A lie. His eyes had been there, though.

"I watched your comrade offer his life for yours."

The image had been burned into Obito's memory, a moment that had defined him and his course of action.

"I saw him sacrifice his life in good faith, only for you to nearly die regardless. Did Jiraiya ever learn that his favorite student's death was your fault? Caused by your weakness?"

With the power of the short-range _Kamui,_ her next attacks passed right through him.

"You've hunted me down, but what are you planning to do? Itachi and I were equals, and he killed Obito. Abandon your revenge, and I'll leave you be. I didn't kill Jiraiya."

All the same, he knew that she wouldn't. Why hadn't she sought out Danzo, whose crimes against her country were far worse than the short battles he'd fought during the Third Great War? He didn't know. He didn't need to know.

Everything that was necessary, for the task at hand, he already had. This was a battlefield, and she was here to kill him. It didn't matter who was on whose side, only that a single slip would mean death.

Kakashi was determined not to die. The Genjutsu he wove was broken, then again; this wouldn't be a contest he could win by outsmarting his enemy. After all, Konoha had lived in times of relative peace since the end of the last multi-national war. Konan, as a kunoichi of Amegakure, didn't have that luxury. It was death in war, or death by stagnation.

She would claw at him with every shred of violence in her body, until he was gone. When she sent a seal toward him, the _Juuryoku Kajiba-fuu,_ he couldn't escape its pull. Held in place, not even the _Kamui_ could protect him from the fire that the seal created. Suiton chakra flowed freely through his body as he was consumed in the conflagration, preventing anything more serious than a little smoke rising from his body.

He responded with his own Katon technique, the _Youyuu Rasen._ The Molten Helix technique twisted through the air, a loosely curving curl that burned through Konan's paper body...only for it to burst into smoke, revealing her nature as a clone. As the _Kami Bunshin_ fell, three more copies of Konan rose to take its place.

"Oh, wonderful. The numbers game, huh?" Kakashi groaned internally. "Well, if you want to play, then I guess I'll deal. After all, the house always wins."

"You're awfully smug for a man who's facing his death."

He shrugged a very non-committal way, confident in his abilities.

* * *

"This is getting ridiculous." E muttered. "What in the world is taking us so long? Their forces are divided, we outnumber them, we're coordinated and just as skilled...so why haven't we won already?"

A large part of the answer laid in the Kazekage's unexpected arrival, and the Rokubi Jinchuriki. The fact that Han and Roshi had been kept occupied was reason enough for a delay.

That didn't change the fact that something in his gumbo wasn't fresh, and he couldn't figure out what.

E had a few nicks and scrapes along his body, but nothing overly worrying or noticeable to any of the medics. By his own demand, they remained untreated; he'd rather they save the chakra for someone who needed the healing.

He'd worked his way around the city, cutting through to the eastern gate. As if by some miracle, his group had remained undiscovered, and now they were preparing for a triangle attack; Onoki would push from the north, E from the east, and a mix of Iwa and Kumo's forces would surge in from the western gate.

He had no way of knowing that the northern front had already been won, and not by Onoki. There were no signs that Danzo and Ne were dealing with the western coalition, from this distance. The village's center remained a hotbed of activity, with the brunt of the fighting being taken care of by Konoha's clans.

He couldn't have known that the reason for his successful infiltration wasn't because of his own skill. When a thick, chakra-laced mist rolled in around Kumo's premiere shinobi, the answer was apparent: they'd been lulled into that secure peace of mind.

"Retreat! Get out of the mist!" He shouted.

Two choking gasps resounded near him, and E barreled through the fog to see his assailants: ninja from Kirigakure, the same ones who'd fought against Yugito and his brother after he'd chosen to involve his nation in Kiri's civil war. Standing at their head was the _Kirigakure no Oni,_ Momochi Zabuza himself, the Kubikiribocho in his hands. Next to him was a man whose name E didn't know, with a pair of eyepatches covering his face.

That was worrisome.

"Let's finish this up fast. I wanna give that brat a fuckin' fantastic homecoming. Ao, I think it'll take me...five minutes? Tops?"

"I'll take that bet." The blind shinobi said.

E steeled himself for combat.


	61. In A Demon's Soul Dead Gods Lay Dreaming

**I LIVE! First it was Overwatch taking over my time, and then I got Fallout 4 and...oh boy, I realize you guys don't know this about me, but holy motherfuck Fallout is a goddamn timesink for me. It's probably my second-most-played franchise, behind Fire Emblem. 4 lives up to the hype, though I still think that New Vegas is the pinnacle of the series' gameplay and that 3 has the best storyline. (2 gets an honorable mention for coming 2nd in both of those categories.)**

 **Anyway, though, I'll try to speed up and get to the chapter after my responses. So, that having been said:**

 **1\. OneLunchMan: Yeah...3000 words is a lot to write, but not a lot to read, tbh. Like, that 10K chapter I pushed out a while back? Massive. Great Googly Moogly it all went to shit. Let's see if this one passes you by as quickly!**

 **2\. Drake Vallion: Zabuza is never, ever alone. You remember that aura before he died in the Wave arc? I played with that a little. Hopefully there'll be some people who understand what I'm doing with that.**

 **3\. Wondering Knight: I'm gonna have to disagree with you. Danzo was constantly shown in opposition to the Sandaime's views. (And, consequently, most of the views of the village-at-large.) The protection of the village is a relative point, because for someone like Danzo, anyone who's not an ally is an enemy. That kind of thinking hinders peace, when peace is something that's supposed to be wanted/striven for. On the other hand, Jiraiya and Tsunade were trying to do the humane and morally right thing by sparing the lives of children. Jiraiya made everything he did about approaching peace, and Tsunade wanted to see that nobody had to suffer the same losses she had.**

 **Danzo was a better ninja. Jiraiya and Tsunade were better humans.**

 **4\. RahvinsCage: I'm glad you're excited, and I'm glad I can finally put an end to the curiosity burning inside of you. Whether or not this ending satisfies you will obviously be up to your discretion, but we're not quite off the tracks yet...**

 **5\. Saint of vice koncor: I meant to ask you about what those theories are, but in the lapse between reading your review and publishing this chapter, I completely forgot. Hopefully, I managed to pull a fast one on you, but we'll see.**

 **6\. DoctorPain91: Thanks! A good cliffhanger is supposed to be frustrating, though. That means I've done a good job getting you hooked, lol.**

 **Now, since the last chapter was the 60th, here are the current popularity standings for _Within the Straws I Grasp:_** **420 reviews, (shout out to the anon who reviewed the first chapter and who may never see this for allowing me to reach meme status) 422 favorites, and 592 followers. Thank you all for helping this story get as far as it has, and I hope you'll continue with me all the way through the ride!**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"Be honest. Are you a clone?" Naruto asked.

"Be honest. Are you?" Konan asked him.

"Only one way to find out. Futon: Myaku Bakudan!"

Konan didn't feel any more than a slight breeze blowing past her. Only the telltale blink of chakra, in that space between the two of them, was enough to let her in on what was happening.

Naruto's status as a Jinchuriki, and the container of the strongest Biju, afforded him more offensive opportunities than most ninja. He could survive just about anything that wouldn't destroy his vital organs in a single blow.

She created a shield from her wings as Naruto blew up the space between them, the concussive blast still knocking her to her back on the unsteady ground. She watched as his ruptured gut healed itself, intestines pulling themselves back into his body and the skin knitting itself back together.

"Real thing." He grinned. "You know, there's a definite advantage to having my eyes ripped out. Know what it is?"

"You're now blind to the horrors of the world around you?"

Naruto paused for a moment, taken aback and unsure of whether or not he should laugh. Deciding not to, he continued.

"My field of vision in Sage Mode is a full sphere. There's no such thing as a surprise attack on me, anymore."

"Why tell me?"

That was a good question. As much as Naruto liked to talk, he also enjoyed keeping his secrets. It was something of an irony that he got so enraged at secrets being kept from him.

"Because I don't think you can win." His reply wasn't unsteady. While he couldn't see the chakra flowing through Konan's body like a Hyuuga would, he was more than able to feel how much she was producing, and it was far too little for her to contend with him seriously.

Then again, the people who _could_ force him to go all-out were few and far between.

"Suiton: Atsuryoku Nabe!" Konan called out her attack's name in defiance of his declaration, and Naruto frowned.

The water in the air began to cling to his skin, heating up as it continued to gather.

"Futon: Kaze no Keimusho!" Konan's second jutsu was cast, and Naruto's body locked in place as the temperature around him continued to rise.

 _Shit. Me and my big fucking mouth._ Naruto cursed himself.

Konan wasn't an S-class kunoichi without reason. Her combination technique was broiling, roasting him from the inside; while Naruto didn't know whether he could be killed by overheating, he wasn't certain that he wanted to test those limits. Months of experimentation on his body had left him a little sensitive to that idea.

He felt three ribs crack from the weight of the water surrounding him, an oven of chakra that was slowly consuming him.

"You might be right. Maybe I can't win." Konan's words were mocking, but her tone wasn't. "There's a reason why Pein chose to leave you be, and determined to capture you himself. He thinks you're too powerful for anyone else in the Akatsuki to take on...but it doesn't seem that way now. Come on, Naruto! Show me the strength that made a god feel fear!"

Caught in a jutsu that was supposed to eliminate his ability to move, Naruto flexed his fingers and smiled.

* * *

"You know, I've heard a lot of people call you the fastest man alive." Zabuza said. "I think that's bullshit. Just so you know."

"Well, that's fair. I've heard a lot of people call you the strongest of the Seven Swordsmen, and I think that's bullshit." E countered.

Zabuza laughed.

"Oh, Kisame is definitely _stronger,_ but he has plenty of reason to be afraid of me. Kumo has Bingo Books too, you know my skills. Kisame's someone who'll use raw power to force his way through everything. Being an assassin requires a little more...finesse."

The mist dissipated behind E, revealing that about half of his force had been decimated by...a second Zabuza.

"Ao, you and the others go take care of the calves. I'll handle the bull."

"So we're animals to you, is that it?"

"Scientifically? When you've killed as many people as I have, you tend to go a little nuts in the head, so you pick up whatever tricks you need to in order to stay sane. It's easier to dehumanize your targets, because if you're just killing animals, you can say that their life didn't have the same meaning as a human's. Do you flinch when you kill a mosquito? Do you hesitate to crush ants?"

"No."

"Then we understand each other perfectly. Let's get on with it."

The former Kiri rebels moved as one, out from the shadows of the buildings surrounding them. One of the Kumo-nin managed to slip past them, but he impaled himself on Zabuza's blade for the trouble.

"One little piggy went to market..."

E would have sworn that he saw Zabuza's chakra manifest into the shape of a demon. At least, he considered it a demon. Something that inhuman, almost in the shape of an illithid from horror stories he'd heard as a child...but larger, more horrifying, almost seeming to reside in another dimension. Was that the swordsman's true nature?

Something was wrong with the world, with Momochi Zabuza.

the _Kirigakure no Oni_ didn't take note of the Raikage's small fit of terror. Just as the dehumanization was a trait he'd garnered to maintain his sanity, his singing was a byproduct of his cracked mentality. Unbidden, the demon-song came to fill his mind.

He laughed, Kubikiribocho held aloft in his right hand as he formed seals with his left. He had been one of Jiraiya's informants for three and a half years before he and Haku had traveled to Nami no Kuni to work for Gato, and one-handed seals had been the most important thing he picked up from the Sannin. Jiraiya rarely used them himself, as his chakra control wasn't good enough to give any consistency. For Zabuza, however, they were invaluable.

A wedge of water flew from the side, less of an attempt to decapitate E than to cripple him. When the technique split apart, flowing around the Raikage's body before reforming on the other side, Zabuza paused.

"Magnetic fields. You layer the air around you with differently-charged Raiton chakras...anything with a negative charge is repelled by the negative chakra, and anything with a positive charge is repelled by the positive chakra. Long- and mid-range jutsu won't work, then...I'll need to use force."

That was alright. Zabuza was an assassin, regarded as the best in Kiri, but Kenjutsu was still the bread and butter of his skill set. If E wanted to force him into close-quarters combat, he didn't have a problem with it.

No man could kill a demon.

Zabuza felt the first punch land, moving his arm out of the way so that his right ribs took the blow instead. He heard six of them break on contact, eyes widening as his whole body sagged for a moment.

It was a terrible, horrifically planned move...but Zabuza had calculated perfectly. He could still move perfectly fine, all his limbs remained functional, and the power of his sword-swings was unaffected.

Nobody else could get away with a strategy like that, but it would only work once. That was alright though, because Zabuza was determined to not need it again. After all, if he did, then he was a dead man.

"Raiton: Byakurai!" E shouted, the air twisting around itself as lightning flew toward Zabuza.

The Hundred Thunderclaps technique was a Kumogakure Kinjutsu, passed from one Raikage to the next. It would send two hundred amperes of electricity through the user's target, enough to scorch the body and kill upon impact.

Zabuza countered by stabbing his sword into the earth and ducking away from it, the metal of the blade pulling all of the electricity toward it and grounding the technique.

"You'll have to fight a bit smarter than that. All muscle, and no brain...you don't fight like a ninja."

E saw something move from the corner of his eye, instinctively turning toward it to dodge.

 _A rabbit?_

Three shuriken pegged him in his back, and a kunai went through each of his knees. E performed a _kawarimi,_ replacing himself with a log to erase the damage.

Zabuza dodged the second punch, a _shunshin_ moving him out of the way while two strings of chakra threaded around his removed armor-tape. His face in plain sight, he tightened the adhesive strip to bind around E's throat.

E clawed at the tape instinctively, blood leaking from his throat on both ends as its grip tightened to choke him.

"You're just a loose dog, waiting to be put down."

The Raikage glared at his opponent, Raiton chakra gathering to cook the makeshift garrote into a harmless piece of cloth. Then, as his whole body was teeming with electric speed, he launched into his signature lariat.

"And you're just a baby demon, if that!"

Zabuza sunk into a pool of water, E's attack bypassing him completely as he moved away. Rising up, he sidestepped another punch. E was having the same problem with his chakra overload that Kakashi originally experienced with the _Chidori:_ an intense tunnel vision, where E's body was moving faster than his mind could keep up with.

The grin on Zabuza's face, shark-teeth and all, was unbearably aggravating for E to look at.

* * *

"Well, this is getting us nowhere." Kakashi huffed through his mask, staring at the three Konans surrounding him. "Ever think that, maybe, we're all in the wrong line of work?"

"No. I'm right where I need to be." The Konan on his left said impassively.

He barely dodged the series of paper kunai and shuriken that she threw at him, throwing up the _Hi no Kabe,_ a circular wall of flames that guarded him from the explosions that followed. Dropping the technique, he performed an immediate _kawarimi_ to avoid the final explosive she'd held back.

A _Rasengan_ found its way into the left Konan's ribcage, and she vanished in a plume of white smoke.

"One down." He huffed, realizing that he was beginning to run low on chakra. If he didn't end this fast, then the numbers game wouldn't end in his favor.

The telltale crinkle of paper beneath his feet was all the warning he got, and by that point it was too late. He was expecting an explosion, but it looked to be a gravity-affecting seal, judging by the sudden pressure he felt. Unable to move, he was forced to watch as a plant...man...plant-man...rose up from the ground next to the center Konan.

 **"You know, Konan,** Pein-sama isn't very excited about you being here."

"Be quiet, Zetsu. What are you doing here?"

"We're here for **the blood of my father."**

"Do as you will, then."

"No, it looks like you're having some trouble. **Would you like any help?"**

"Search for the other. Help her."

 **"Very well.** See you later!"

Zetsu sunk back into the ground once again, leaving Kakashi alone with two copies of the Akatsuki's angel.

This wasn't going to end well.

* * *

It was pointless, Danzo conceded to himself, for such a large-scale offensive to continue when the attackers had repeatedly been repelled. It was also pointless, he countered, to give up when you were so fully committed to an action.

He plucked two kunai out of the air, his deft hands returning them to their owners with a bit more momentum than they'd originally possessed. The _Shuuchuu-gata no Juuryoku_ _no Fuin_ was layered over a delayed explosive seal that hid on the ground beneath them, so that his enemies would be drawn in close together and then torn apart by the blast that followed.

Maybe it was true that old dogs couldn't learn new tricks, but as far as Danzo was concerned, he already had everything he needed in his arsenal.

"Hm...you are the Raikage's right hand man, yes? And you...Onoki's granddaughter. Why would he bring a child to this place?"

"Does it matter?" Darui asked, looking forward with boredom in his eyes.

"It means he's less human than I believed."

"How dare you!" Kurotsuchi growled.

"Hm...such anger, at such slight provocation. You know, you'd make a fine bride for my apprentice, if only for your dissimilarities to him."

"Let's just get this over with." Darui said. "We all know why we're here, I don't understand why there's always this preambulatory bullshit."

"Well, if you kill me, consider it to be humoring an old man's last request."

Kurotsuchi took a leap forward, coming down on her hands and springing up above the blade of Danzo's tanto. Landing on the other side, she and Darui attacked from both sides; what she didn't expect was for her punch to be blocked, easily, by a man her own age.

"Danzo-sama, I would appreciate it if you left me out of your meddling. I understood that part of my mission was to learn autonomy, yes?"

Danzo, whose wooden arm had been charged with Futon chakra to catch Darui's punch, nodded.

"You came at the right time, Sai. Where are the others?"

"Well, Taicho is somewhere in Konoha. The rest, I can't account for."

That was a bad answer, but if it was true, then so be it. As ink tigers surrounded the four ninja, Darui and Kurotsuchi backed away. Danzo turned his head to look at his apprentice, and saw something terrifying: Sai, with a manic grin on his face more befitting his nephew. If Sai had learned to show emotion, and used Naruto as his example, there was no telling what would happen. If he had to guess, Danzo would say that things were about to go downhill, quickly.

And then the laughter started.

* * *

"You know, all things considered, I, uh...I expected a bit more. I mean, sure, I'm an assassin, but this is broad daylight." Zabuza said.

The voice of Zabuza's chakra had entered E's mind, blood and thunder pounding in his ears as it whispered. It wasn't Genjutsu, it wasn't a chakra-based technique at all. Was he even conscious of it? Had he just grown accustomed to the voice, or could he hear it at all?

 _Y'ai ah hai goff'n hupadgh n'gahyar._

He would never know the meaning of the words.

 _Yawgah'n Zabuza-og. Ya stell'bsna Madaranyth n'gahyar. Nog n'gahyaragl._

He could feel the demon. The god. He could feel the thousands of years...millions of years...of pain and death brought on by this creature. E had lasted for as long as he could, had held out for as long as any man might. In the end, known only to himself, if would not be Zabuza who killed him.

It would be the monster in his mind.

That foul chakra Zabuza exuded, something neither human nor monstrous, was like poison when the assassin's focus was on a single target. Locking movement, quickening breath, it was all E could do to stay conscious and not give in to his fear. In one final effort, he launched into a final attack; pouring all of his chakra into his left fist, he sprung forward too fast for Zabuza to react.

 _Cb'thnk nafln'gah._

Chakra-born tentacles wrapped around the Raikage's arm, stretching out from Zabuza's chin like a beard. Zabuza suddenly became aware of it, and was unable to stop it from burrowing inside of his skin. Horrified, E watched the ethereal appendages writhe underneath his skin as they worked their way up his body. His throat was constricted in seconds, one tentacle sliding upward to exit through his nostrils as another stabbed its way out of his chest.

"What the hell is this? I'm not doing this!" Zabuza asked, in mild panic.

He would get no response. E's eyes rolled into the back of his head, and the chakra tentacle in his throat and face ripped its way upward and out. Zabuza was no stranger to blood or gore, but as they coated him in those moments, he was afraid.

What had he done?

* * *

"We all have our methods of destruction." Konan said. "It seems I'll have to take a page from Deidara's book."

Kakashi paused, unsure of what those words meant; he had no reference for whoever Deidara was.

The two Konan clones exploded into sheet after sheet of paper, scattering on the winds of an angel's breath and leaving Kakashi frightened for his life. He'd been fighting against clones the entire time? He hadn't even _touched_ the real Konan yet?

Thousands of sheets of paper flew on the wings of a dream, shredding themselves into millions of strips as identical writing appeared on each one. The battle would be over soon enough, Kakashi realized. he didn't have the chakra left to perform another _Kamui,_ even a short-ranged one that could save himself.

 _Well, I had a good run._

He saw another Konan, assuming she was the real one. Naruto chased after her, but even his mighty leap was unable to catch the _Kami no Tenshi_ as she rose into the air. A wall of wind formed around her, repelling the weapons sent her way.

The paper strips affixed themselves to every surface they could find. People, buildings, the road...it didn't matter. In a few more seconds, it would seem like it never mattered at all. Kakashi ran on instinct, an adrenal surge flooding through his veins as he tackled Naruto to the ground and covered him, preventing any of the papers from touching his student.

He couldn't save Obito. He couldn't save Rin. He couldn't save Minato or Kushina or the Sandaime. He couldn't save Itachi.

But he could save Naruto.

The explosions happened in a split second, but Kakashi saw it happen in slow-motion with his Sharingan. He watched the all-consuming force ripping people to shreds and causing buildings to collapse. It didn't matter that there were still plenty of Iwa and Kumo ninja left alive, technically allied to Konan's current cause; they weren't Akatsuki. They were targets, the receivers of her pain.

Kakashi let the burning death wash over him, his corpse a shield for Naruto as the devastation ended. With no regrets left in the world of the living, he walked into the hall of his fathers. _Horkew Kamuy_ could rest, at last.


	62. Aftermath of Sorrows

**Bet you thought you wouldn't see me again this soon. Well, here I am! Not much to update you all on. Before I forget though, if any of you guys want to play Overwatch with me, my battlenet tag is Melkor#11874.**

 **Also, none of you got the Cthulhu reference? Come on.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. Wondering Knight: The Sandaime's ideology wasn't as idealistic as that, by any stretch. It seemed to be something along the lines of, "In times of war, end war quickly. In times of peace, keep the peace for as long as you can." More than sentimentality would keep him from attempting to apprehend Orochimaru, as well. S-class nukenin are given that rank for a reason, and eventually Orochimaru had a hidden village (of sorts) under his command. Moving against that would be an instigation of war, which Konoha (morally?) tries to avoid. He also, officially, disbanded Ne and believed that Danzo would respect him enough to follow orders. However, when he discovered that wasn't the case, he was lenient because he knew that Danzo believed he had Konoha's interests at heart.**

 **The insinuation that Hashirama didn't do the same thing for Madara isn't just ludicrous, it's false, because Hashirama tried at great length and personal expense to calm Madara down and bring him back into Konoha's ideology of equality for all people rather than Konohan superiority. (An argument repeated by Hiruzen and Danzo.)** **Tobirama was a racist jackass who can be directly blamed for the Uchiha revolt and therefore their slaughter, and he was raised in the**

 **Peace can be obtained through non-violence, because if everybody chooses to be nonviolent then there will be peace. However, sometimes you need to fight for the things you believe in; that's what Jiraiya did.**

 **2\. tastybigsexy: Thanks! I've always considered imagery and description to be some of my stronger points in writing.**

 **3\. Saint of vice koncor: Nah, Naruto wasn't getting the Rinnegan. I have to leave him at least SOMEWHAT vulnerable, even if he is more OP than I'm aware of how to deal with him...lmao. I'm not sure about a sequel, but I do have an idea bouncing around in my head that I think would be fun to write.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

The after-effects of the battle's abrupt ending were readily apparent. Kiri's ninja had survived, making it away from the gate they fought inside with enough time to avoid any damage. Their former enemies from Kumo fled with them, and they watched with pain in their hearts. Regardless of their villages, or their alliances, there was nothing but horror and disgust for the end result of Konan's rage.

The blast had flown high into the sky, flinging shards of metal and glass out across the winds with broken wood and chunks of cement. Pieces of corpses were strewn about, though there was a level of unspoken certainty that most of the dead had simply been consumed by the explosion.

"What the..."

Konoha was little more than rubble, the Hokage Monument wiped clean from the cliff where the village founders had sat and shared their dreams for the future. The Hokage Tower, the market district, the clan residencies...even the slums where Naruto had raised himself. All of it, gone in the span of a few seconds. This was the level of catastrophe that a single member of the Akatsuki was capable of. This was the strength of a woman who had lost everything that could possibly be taken.

And then, from afar, Zabuza saw the same thing that he'd hoped never to witness again. Amid the smell of burning wood and charred earth, mixed with the uneasy heat in the air around them, was the faint view of a man leaping into the sky. Coated in red chakra, no weapon in his hands but the fists he was born with, Naruto rose to challenge his would-be killer.

The foul, oppressive malevolence of the Kyuubi's chakra filled the world around them. Stronger than ever before, the unchained malice Naruto brought with him was enough to bring most of the few surviving shinobi to their knees in fear.

One man still lived in the wreckage who would fight for Konoha...for what it could have been. For what the world might have seen after he had come to lead it. The roar that left his mouth was filled with blood and vengeance, and would echo for miles.

"Get her, Naruto." Zabuza hissed between clenched teeth, his eyes trained on the dot in the sky that was Konan's distant form. "Kill that bitch."

And then, without warning, an anthropomorphic fly trap made itself known as it crashed into the Kyuubi Jinchuriki.

* * *

 **"Hello again, father."**

"Uh, excuse me?"

The plant-man paused.

"You don't remember?" The white half of the two-toned being asked.

"What should I be remembering?" Naruto had encountered plenty of perplexing bullshit in his life, but nothing on this scale.

A nukenin, in Akatsuki robes, clearly far older than Naruto himself was...referring to him as, "father." The idea was something that he wouldn't have believed in a million years, let alone instantly.

 **"It's me...us? Me.** Your son."

"Sorry, I find that a little hard to..."

Two bladed gauntlets manifested in the air around Zetsu's hands, and he barreled into Naruto while shredding open the blond's flesh with his metal-clad fists.

"Whether or not you know, **or accept it,** the story is playing out. Your blood gave her **_everything!_ It cursed me...us...to this!"**

Naruto thought it over in his head. From the ancestral memories he'd seen when Rei and Kouga adopted their new bodies, and the Kyuubi's words a few hours ago, he understood that there was plenty of important stuff that he had no clue about. What he _did_ know was that Rei and Kouga were, somehow, his children. The appearance of the Uzumaki blood trait to manifest weapons from chakra, and the mention of, "her," by the person before him, left one conclusion.

"Kouga?"

"I stopped using that name **when I stopped being human.** I'm Zetsu now."

"But... _what_ are you now?"

 **"That** doesn't matter **anymore."**

Zetsu threw another punch, but it seemed that he'd forgotten his forebear's strength in the millennia since his birth. His fist ran right into the Kyuubi-imbued falx that Naruto had wielded for the last two years, the rough-hewn metal shearing through the razored plates of Zetsu's gauntlet.

Yes...there was plenty that Naruto had no inkling of knowledge about. But this was a fight.

Naruto knew a _lot_ about fighting.

The demonic aura surrounding him was palpable. It was awe-inspiring, fear-inducing, and as much a weapon in its own right as the beast it came from. His focus was fixated on Konan, still high in the sky above the wasted citadel. Zetsu was...there, but in the mind of the Jinchuriki, his supposed time-lost child was of little concern.

Zetsu moved to attack again, but an armored figure moved to intercept the blow. Standing before Naruto was the man who'd killed his grandfather, still somehow alive and well.

"The sins of the father pass to the son." Ne's elderly commander quipped. "Kill her and be done with this affair."

"We're declaring a truce." Kurotsuchi said, standing beside Sai and Darui as they walked forward. "Danzo did...something. It saved us when the bombs went off."

Danzo's hidden Sharingan was also what pacified Naruto's aura enough that they could stand there and appear unaffected.

"Taicho, I'll take care of this overgrown weed." Sai offered, and Naruto nodded. Ne's leader-to-be engaged Zetsu, his tipless tanto holding its own against Zetsu's ancient gauntlets.

For a moment, Naruto released so much chakra through his hand seals that he seemed to glow. His chakra, the Kyuubi's chakra, and the natural energy he drew in from the world around him combined themselves into a rainbow of colors, and there was no mistaking his movement.

Konan was watching from above. She knew what came next, and she wouldn't try to run or dodge. She'd lost too much chakra from the explosion that leveled Konoha to do more than survive, and it would be better this way.

As she felt Naruto's hands dig into her collarbones, ripping them out and wrenching her arms into uselessness, she smiled. Her mind wasn't present in the world around her; she was lost in the world of her past. As he tore her wings out, she remembered the first time she had made them, flying above her sensei and lover with all the pride inherent in a kunoichi who'd just created her first technique. She had reserved their lovemaking, in the last years before his return to Konoha, for occasions of achievement or celebration.

She was going to be with him now, forever. She would die under the same sky that he did, in the same place that he had.

She plummeted, the wind rushing by her as quickly as her memories were. In the end, that was all anyone had, wasn't it? The memories of the past, the remembrance of those times that turned you into the person you became when you remembered.

Konan had many bad memories, particularly of her childhood. Her life had been one string of misfortunes after another, and it was finally time for that to end. Jiraiya had been a womanizer, and he had never been able to stay with her for long...but now that she was heading toward him, in the end of her life, he could never run away from her again. He had been the light in her life.

He would be the joy of her death.

The end was instant. With her eyes closed, Konan had no way to register that she had hit the ground or that her life had ended. Her body crumpled in on itself, blood spraying out as her skin tore open from the pressure of gravity reaching its climax.

"Well, I guess I'll take my leave... **we'll meet again, father. Count on it."**

Zetsu sank into the earth, and didn't reappear.

The battle was over.

* * *

As it turned out, there were more survivors than originally anticipated. About half of Ne's total forces had survived by staying in their secure hiding places beneath the city, and the wounded had been taken there. There was also the fact that all civilians and academy students had been evacuated long before the battle began, though they weren't countable in the context of military might. Casualties were still absurdly high, with Konoha's surviving force tallying somewhere between a quarter and a third of their original strength, but after an attack of that scale...it was something.

Tenzo had managed to shield many of the Anbu with a reflexive Mokuton dome, but not everyone had survived. The most glaring loss, however, was indisputably the fact that Nara Shikaku, Sarutobi Asuma, and Inuzuka Tsume were the only surviving clan heads. Asuma and Tsume had been injured, and one of Shikaku's reconnaissance Ninjutsu allowed him to teleport through anything his shadow could touch. Using it, he'd shed his gear and used it to make his escape to the border of the forest around Konoha.

This was the scene that the rest of the Rookie Twelve, and their ragtag group, arrived at. Tenzo had used his technique to build a temporary shelter above ground, and they were using it to plan their next move.

"Uh...we didn't take a wrong turn somewhere, did we?" Chojuro asked with a small amount of hope in his voice.

"Nah, kid." Zabuza said, approaching them and ushering the group inside. "We got fucked pretty good."

"Everything was going fine, until the Akatsuki showed up." Naruto muttered. "That _bitch!"_

"Who?" Tayuya asked, her thumb slowly running over the back of her boyfriend's knuckles.

"Konan. Turns out she wasn't just Jiraiya's girlfriend, she was his informant on the Akatsuki's movements. After he died, she joined Kumo and Iwa's attack on us...and she's the one responsible for this."

"One person did this? _Konan_ did this?" Tayuya shook her head. "I mean, I get that their group is made up of bullshit strong freak-shows like that bastard snake jackass, but...not even he could pull this off, and that was a surprise attack! What the fuck?"

"The obvious answer is that Orochimaru wasn't one of the group's stronger members." Shikamaru muttered. "And that's...a really troublesome problem."

"Understatement of the year award goes to..." Ino knocked her elbow into the Nara heir's ribs.

"We have two immediate orders of business to attend to." Danzo spoke up. "First and foremost, by the nature of ascendancy, all those of you who are clan heirs whose parents weren't killed are now clan heads. This includes Sai, who will take the Senju clan's seat in lieu of Naruto's status as the previously-instated Uzumaki clan head."

Hinata squeezed her eyes shut, almost in denial of her family's fate.

"Hinata-san, if you wish to abdicate, you may. Simply name your replacement."

"N-n-Neji-onii." She stuttered her cousin's name out.

"Neji-san, do you accept?"

"Yes." The calm Hyuuga said determinedly. In truth, Neji had no vested interest in being the head of their heavily weakened clan, but between the choice of Hinata, Hanabi, or himself, he would place the burden on his own shoulders.

"Very well. If there's nothing else, we'll move on to the second major issue at hand: we need a Hokage." Danzo continued. "In the interest of...accelerating the process...we should limit candidate nominations to people in this room. Clan heads may vote. The Anbu and Ne commanders, Tenzo and myself, may vote. Nobody can nominate or vote for themselves. Do you all find this acceptable?"

No disagreement was proposed, and a brief moment of silence followed.

"I nominate Uzumaki Naruto." Shino spoke up, ending the quiet thoughts that were mirrored in the minds of the newly-appointed clan heads.

"All assenters, please second the nomination."

"I second the nomination." Neji said, a sentiment that was quickly followed by Ino, Chouji, Sai and Sasuke.

"Six people, of twelve." Shikaku said. "I'll support him too, then."

"I've got no problem with him." Tsume said, though her piercing gaze was locked onto the blond. "He's his father's son. I second the nomination."

"I'll second the nomination." Tenzo added his name to the list of Naruto's vocal supporters.

"Me too." Asuma said. "If anyone can carry out pops' legacy, it'd be Naruto."

"Ten of twelve votes have been cast, three more than the majority and twice the plurality needed." Danzo said. "Uzumaki Naruto...do you accept your nomination?"

Though the blond teen had no eyes with which to see anymore, Danzo could only describe Naruto's appearance as staring him in his own singular eye.

"I do."

"Congratulations, you are now the acting Hokage of Konohagakure. Your title will become official once we hold a coronation at...some point."

"At some point." Naruto agreed. There were more important things to worry about.

The most jarring of which was, _why hadn't Danzo attempted to become Hokage?_ It was too jarring a shift to envision, and yet they were living it.

"That settles that, then." Kurotsuchi said. "I...looks like I'm the only survivor here, from my village. I'm gonna go back home and tell them the news."

"What about your Jinchuriki?" Yugito asked. "There were four of them, not including the three of us who arrived later."

"Gaara and Utakata took out Iwa's Jinchuriki...wait. Stop." Naruto interrupted himself. "Hold on a second. Has anyone seen _any_ of the four of them since they dropped their transformations?"

The two elder Sabaku siblings shared an immediate pale-faced look of horror, though with his makeup on, the effect was more drastic on Kankuro.

"Nobody is leaving until we figure out what happened." Naruto announced.

He and the Kyuubi had the same thought, without needing to talk about it: Zetsu. If four Jinchuriki had already been taken by the Akatsuki, it stood to reason that an infiltration and extraction specialist would feel comfortable trying to go for a fifth.

The problem arose with the knowledge that, according to Kurotsuchi and the Kumo-native survivors, Konan had been the only Akatsuki member to stand with their cause. They'd never seen, or heard, of Zetsu. The more interesting point, though, was that Konan hadn't joined them through her status as a member of the Akatsuki; she had come on the orders of the leader of Amegakure.

She'd said something about that country when they fought, as well. About another Uzumaki, the leader of the Akatsuki. Persistent son of a bitch.

Luckily for himself, so was Naruto.

* * *

"Oh, gods..." Tenten said as they reached the clearing that had turned into a sand pit. Four bodies, with different parts shredded or broken, were all missing their heads.

"Stay calm." Danzo's tone was authoritative, despite the fact that his words held no real power. "If they're really dead, their Biju's seals will be intact. Otherwise, these are decoys."

Naruto, Sai, and Danzo approached the corpses; the results were unanimous: none of the four possessed a Biju seal, nor any remnant of demonic chakra. That meant two things, both good and bad...the good news was, none of the four Jinchuriki were dead yet. The bad news was, they were in the Akatsuki's hands.

"I have to go back home and tell everyone." Kurotsuchi said. "We'll take care of looking for our own Jinchuriki."

"We'll need to return to Kumo as well." Darui joined in. "For the sake of defeating the Akatsuki, we'll all need to set aside our village loyalties and focus on saving the world we live in."

"In the meantime, I'd be happy to offer...whatever we can to help. The Akatsuki is everybody's problem, not something to leave to our individual efforts. You all just saw what happens when you get complacent with them." Naruto said.

He didn't exactly know how a Hokage was supposed to act, but the Sandaime had always urged for peace to be the primary goal of his reign. Even a born killer like Naruto could see why; violence and death did nothing but make people hate each other, and that only lead to more death as vengeance became the primary motive of war. And, after the obliteration of his village, Naruto wasn't very intent on any ideas of belligerence.

Kurotsuchi took her leave, though a squad of Anbu would tail her until she got into her home country. One lone girl, even a kunoichi as highly-trained as she was, would be very much at risk on the long trek back to Iwagakure.

Darui gathered the Kumogakure remnants and left as well, unsupervised; their number was large enough that they wouldn't have anything to fear from raiders or nukenin. They were gone not too long after Kurotsuchi, though Yugito stayed behind. That left Kiri's former rebels in the shell of a city, standing together with their comrades from Konoha.

"You should head back to Kirigakure." Naruto said, his quasi-demonic visage enhanced by the glow of his missing eyes. "Mei needs to know what happened here. Haku, Chojuro, you'll need to go home as well. Train hard."

After all the farewells had been taken care of, Zabuza and Ao led their company away, with Haku and Chojuro in tow. One by one, the gathered crowd dispersed, until Naruto was left alone in the building at his ruined village's center.

With his back craned low, holding his head in his hands at the table where he'd earlier been proclaimed the presumptive Hokage, he wept.


	63. Rebuilding, Pein's Decision

**Another chapter, coming up...well, I guess this is comparatively fast. Sometimes I've waited years for updates on other stories, so by my own measure I think I'm doing well.**

 **In an attempt to bring back some of the humor of the earliest chapters, I hope you enjoy the last segment of this one.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. Drake Vallion: I'd say that this story is about...halfway done, give or take? Bear in mind that the period of time where Naruto was gone received far more screentime than other arcs. Whether I slow down for some more lighthearted action is debatable; I'm torn on how I want to go about it, because killing characters off is kind of fun, now that I've really started doing it.**

 **2\. Conso Anima: Canon went balls-to-the-wall insane, my dude. Like, even DBZ's bizarre power-ups and eternal escalation of conflict makes more sense than whatever the hell happened at the end of _Naruto._ That's about as far as I can get into the topic without starting to swear, so I'll cut myself off. And, yeah, there's definitely parts in this story where people should be able to tell that I didn't have a plan; I don't start writing a chapter with any new ideas in mind, only the knowledge that I want to get a new chapter out and that I want it to have at least ~3K words. "Flying by the seat of my pants," as the expression goes?**

 **3\. Jt (guest): Well, here's another chapter for you!**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

Nagato bowed his head as Zetsu retreated, having learned the results of the battle for Konoha.

Konan had made her choice, she had relinquished the realm of the living in order to reunite with Jiraiya in that space where all the worlds' lost souls met at last. It would take her the rest of eternity, in the never-ending dark, but she would find her way to their sensei.

Nagato had no such luxury, or desire. He was more interested in the recording of the battle that he'd witnessed: the Tsuchikage's death. Hatake Kakashi, having taken Obito's right eye, sacrificed himself to ensure the survival of the son-who-was-not. Naruto, rising to combat the perpetrator of his village's massacre...Danzo's quasi-mythical survival of the explosion that annihilated a hundred square miles of civilization. The ambush of Kumo's forces, and the slaughter of the Raikage by a man whose chakra inexplicably made Nagato feel sick to his stomach.

Staring down at the four comatose Jinchuriki before him, Nagato was filled with a rage unbecoming of his status as the _Ame no Kami._ Naruto...the Kyuubi...dared to think that he was allowed to stand against the fate that the dead gods had revealed?

That hubris would be punished, and Nagato would be the instrument of their will.

Konan was gone. He'd been prepared for that much to happen when she had decided to assault Konoha in cooperation with Kumo and Iwa. In exchange for her life, however, she had given him the annihilation of his most formidable opponent. Kumo was gone, and Iwa was going to follow suit in short order. Kiri had suffered enormous losses following their civil war, and now Suna stood as the greatest power in the ninja world. They didn't know that yet, and Nagato was determined that they wouldn't get a chance to.

Their Kazekage missing, his siblings away from the village on his orders. The desert citadel's most ardent defenders were gone, making it the perfect time to strike. With Konan and Obito dead, Nagato would need to rely more heavily on Zetsu than he wished...but that was alright, as long as the plant-man continued to align his goals with Nagato's own.

The desert would be drowned in a sea of blood and pain, sent down from the heavens by his divine decree. He had seen it. His Rinnegan, a sign of his strong blood-ties to the Sightless Demon and the dead gods, had shown him the path to walk upon.

He saw all that could not happen, and from his knowledge of the negative, Nagato could understand his strange precognition. Just as the other four major villages already had, it was time to cause Sunagakure's departure from importance.

There was a story from the world before the gods died, about a place in the desert cloaked in poisonous clouds that blotted out the sunlight. Legends told that sometimes, if you listened to your radio in the dead of night and followed along on the path it cleared for you...you would never be seen again. The old world's people called it the Sierra Madre, filled with enough gold and weaponry to finance and defend any nation for a hundred years.

Nagato didn't believe in that story, but he did believe in its message that anyone could reverse their fortunes with enough willpower and luck. He would turn Sunagakure into the legendary desert-city's real world counterpart, a ruin of civilization that had overstayed its welcome, a necessary sacrifice. By his hand, the world could take the legend's lesson to heart, and begin again.

One of the White Zetsu clones had already been prepared to act as a physical stand-in for Konan, and years of the two interacting with one another meant that there would be no slip-ups in its actions as it impersonated her. Perfection was the mandate of victory in this endeavor, and it would take the strength of all the Akatsuki to ensure that they were successful.

Without any sort of fanfare, in the same silence that had passed between Hanzo's death and Nagato's ascendancy to leadership, Pein was gone from his adopted home.

* * *

"We have... **a problem."** Zetsu said, appearing before the majority of the Akatsuki's members.

Itachi, Maya, Deidara, Kisame, Sasori and Kakuzu stood together, a cloaking jutsu unique to their group preventing the prying eyes of Iwa's Anbu from seeing or hearing them.

"Hm? What's wrong?" Maya asked.

 **"Konan is dead,** and she wiped Konoha off the map!"

Itachi's eyes narrowed immediately, violent ideation recognizable in the reflection of his Sharingan.

"What happened?" Kakuzu asked. "Iwa and Kumo were attacking, and Deidara already blasted Kumo from the face of the earth. Does that mean..."

"A small group of survivors was outside the city when it was destroyed. **The same can't be said of Iwa, though.** Only the Tsuchikage's daughter survived."

"So...what's the problem here? Far as I can tell, only good things have happened for us." Kisame said.

 **"She's on her way to Iwa now.** We need to destroy the village before she gets there."

Deidara smirked.

"I can keep her occupied." The bomber assured his comrades. "She and I basically grew up together, I was the Tsuchikage's student."

"Then why in the world did you defect?" Sasori asked. "If you'd just stayed loyal, I could have been spared _years_ of your nonsense."

"Well...I was looking for some artistic inspiration, which wasn't strictly allowed unless I was demonstrating to my opponents or enemies of the village. There was a group of buildings that climbed higher than the mountains around Iwa, and I was offended that man believed he could reach higher than the world around him...so I blew them up at their bases and watched the buildings collapse. Dust went everywhere, there was a shockwave, lots of fire...they thought it was a foreign attack at first, but then that geezer realized that there were traces of my chakra when I'd been nowhere near the buildings. At that point, I had to go."

"I'm sorry I asked." The puppeteer grumbled. "Besides, you call your jutsu art? Any fool can make explosives. My craft takes an artisan's touch, and can be admired for eternity."

"Oh, please. You probably think wax museums are the height of innovation, don't you? Your art is stagnant, but mine is ephemeral. The glory of my technique can only be witnessed in the moment, an exclusive sight to inspire awe and terror in the hearts of my witnesses!"

 **"Let's not have this discussion again.** It never ends any other way but poorly." Zetsu pleaded.

"Yeah, let's focus on the task at hand." Kisame agreed. "Deidara, you go off and play with the girl. We'll take care of the village."

"Zetsu...is Konoha really gone?" Itachi asked.

"Your brother is alive. **He wasn't in the village."**

Itachi didn't allow himself to let out the sigh of relief that had built in his lungs.

"And Naruto?"

 **"He's the one who killed Konan.** She was out of chakra and let it happen."

Itachi nodded, falling into silence as Deidara separated from their group. The other six of them moved on, and in a matter of hours they'd arrived outside of Iwagakure.

The mountains surrounding the village were towering, an inspiration born of the natural world; even after all this time, and all the events of the past, they stood strong against the onslaught of time.

The Akatsuki's mission would begin shortly.

* * *

"Well, that was a traumatizing experience." Orochimaru said, staring down at the corpse of what used to be one of his test subjects. "I guess this means I'll need to let the Uzumaki settle their little blood feud by themselves."

Alternatively, in the coming battle between Naruto and Nagato, he could choose a side. However, he'd already betrayed Nagato once, and he couldn't expect any friendliness from Konoha.

Unfortunate, since he'd done his best to help them for so many years. Still, the decisions of the village were something that they would need to stand by, and answer for, in due time.

"Kabuto...I'll need you to gather some information for me."

The silver-haired medic nodded from his spot, standing at the center of a room in another of Orochimaru's underground bases.

"As you command, Orochimaru-sama." Kabuto said.

"Wait. First, how long has it been?"

"A few hours, half a day at most. All things considered, very impressive. Depressing that it took the sacrifice of a full base to find out, but impressive nonetheless."

"Really? That's...much faster than I thought it would be. Well, never mind then. Just send a snake to Konoha and see what it can learn."

Kabuto nodded. For some reason, over the last several years, Orochimaru had become more and more reluctant to use his signature summons; while he couldn't figure out what the cause might have been, it also wasn't his place to question his leader.

"What's our next move?" He asked.

Orochimaru looked at him, and there was a long silence between them as Kabuto realized that his master didn't necessarily havea plan.

"We'll do what anyone intelligent will do for this coming war." Orochimaru said. "Knowing some of the history of our world, and what little I do of Pein's plans for the Akatsuki, we're going to support Naruto when he challenges Amegakure."

Kabuto didn't let the puzzled look on his face show for longer than an instant. Regardless of the fact that his statement contradicted the words he'd spoken minutes earlier, he wouldn't question Orochimaru's choice.

"Yes, my lord."

In the interim between then and now, though, Orochimaru would have to make a decision that had nothing to do with the Uzumaki aiming to collide with one another.

* * *

"There is a limit to how much food the human body can consume, and we have _clearly_ passed it." Ino said, her eyes wide as she watched Naruto eat.

And eat.

And eat some more.

"You must not really know ol' piss-for-brains too well, then, huh?" Tayuya laughed. "Let's see who can eat more ramen: Naruto by himself, or everyone else in the village?"

"Nobody's dumb enough to take that bet." Sasuke said. "At least, nobody should be. My money is on Naruto."

The Rookie Twelve were Naruto's unofficial guard, and at least two of them accompanied him publicly at all times. It was a way to normalize the roles that many of them had stepped into; far too many of them, not even sixteen yet, were placed in a position of extreme responsibility.

The rebuilding effort had progressed quickly over the last two days, with Naruto supplying chakra for Tenzo to mold into Mokuton-made buildings. The civilians had been gathered, and together they procured stone and steel to build what wood alone could not. It left Naruto exhausted, because he was the only one who could supply such a massive store of chakra, and Tenzo's ability to use Mokuton made him perfectly compatible with using Kyuubi-influenced chakra. Tayuya and Yugito had both tried, but the results hadn't been particularly fruitful.

In truth, Naruto wasn't certain of how the jutsu worked, since it required... _transitional inter-bodied neural chakra pathways_ or some other bizarre term that Naruto had never heard of before in his life. Tenzo had probably explained it, since the Anbu fell under the Hokage's direction, but jutsu theory was one of Naruto's worst subjects. It always had been, even in the academy. The question was why the Nibi and Sanbi Jinchuriki weren't able to have such a positive effect with the technique's use, since the Shodaime Hokage had been able to control all nine Biju.

Naruto's own suspicion was that it had to do with his inner demon's Zenton capabilities. However, he was still the conduit for the technique, and it left him in a state of mental, physical, and chakra exhaustion. To recover, he had come to the rebuilt Ichiraku family stand, doing his best to once again keep the familial owners in business. Of course, they'd offered it freely; he was close enough to officially holding the title that he may as well have been Hokage already. The villagers all knew that he was doing all he could, and that in the time he had to spend outside of their rebuilding effort, he made rounds to talk to the remnants of the once-thriving village.

Whether they understood or not, or even if they cared, was inconsequential. This was his home, and it was a place that he had decided to dedicate his life to defending. With that said, after an attack of this magnitude, there was only one course of action available; Konan may have been acting on her own, but her actions still weighed on the Akatsuki as a whole, and there was no need for an organization with S-ranked nukenin to grow any stronger. Sooner, rather than later, an offensive would have to be leveled against Amegakure and Pein.

Naruto let those thoughts fade into the back of his mind, and allowed the salty ramen broth to be his primary focus. After all, when you got it as good as he was getting it...you'd savor it for all it was worth. Were it not for the fact that he was paying, and that they were limited in how many bowls they could prepare after the city's destruction, few people would have doubted that Naruto might eat the father-daughter chefs out of house and home...figuratively.

If it were left up to the Kyuubi, of course? Another question entirely.

* * *

For the first time in years, Kurama was allowed to feast on this heavenly broth. Why in the world had it made the decision to walk away from it for so long? It had nearly forgotten the taste, unique to Ayame's preparation and Teuchi's cooking. With this ramen, world domination was possible. It made the thousands of years trapped on earth, and the thousands prior in Makai, worth it.

Whether Naruto's love of ramen stemmed from Kurama, his mother, himself, one of his possible namesakes, the fishcake topping in his favorite dish...it was a mystery, but no matter what, the massive nine-tailed fox was glad for the circumstance.

Idly, it stared at the broken door that had kept its cage functional.

 **"So, what are your thoughts?"**

"He's unpredictable. Violent, no doubt because he was so willing to embrace your influence. But, that having been said, he's still compassionate. He doesn't view people as tools, he doesn't play a game where he'll get rid of somone once they've lost their immediate function...and he's _loyal._ Oh, god, that girl doesn't know how good she's got it." Minato said.

"Mm, I think she's got a pretty decent idea, even if they _are_ trying to preserve innocence. For some reason. I mean, after you and I started going out, how many times did we do it before we got serious about each other?" Kushina added, giggling at the memories.

 **"Don't remind me."**

"I was serious about you from the beginning." Minato assured both of his

"I know, that's why I started by leading you on. And then you just looked like a lost puppy whenever I wasn't around, and I felt bad, and that was when I realized I was in deep shit."

"Right. Rescuing you from behind enemy lines three times had absolutely nothing to deal with it."

 **"Can we please get back on track?"**

"Why, Kyuu-chan, are you getting embarrassed?" Kushina teased it.

 **"No."**

"Liar. I'm gonna do my best to embarrass you more, now! Cock dick balls clit-"

 **"Please stop. This does nothing but make you look even more childish than your son."** Kurama knew _exactly_ which side of the family Naruto's pranking nature came from.

"PENIS!"

 **"Why do I even bother trying?"**

"Couldn't tell you. All in all, it's a very poorly-informed decision to make." Kushina smirked.

 **"I don't deserve this."**

"You killed us." Minato reminded the gigantic fox. "After that, I think just about anything is fair game."

 **"I was under hypnosis, and you killed yourselves with that damned seal."**

"The seal was made by the Uzumaki, and its power is what's letting you eat ramen right now." Kushina said.

 **"You are blameless and perfect, and I love you both."**

For ramen this good, any and all transgressions might be worthy of forgiveness. It was perfectly acceptable and mentally healthy to love Ichiraku ramen more than freedom or demonic pride. It was obviously morally justifiable to murder a thousand wailing babies for no more than a sip of this food the gods had never tasted. Kurama would love only ramen, and fight only for ramen. The world clearly existed for no other purpose than to magnify the strength of that love, which meant that there could be no more perfect world than this one.


	64. Castles Burning

**The glorious saga continues. Big thanks to OneLunchMan for playing Overwatch with me and carrying my goddamn team.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. RedCide47: Glad I could let your hopes come true. Now...dream bigger!**

 **2\. Fromaster24: I mean...you're right, but Harambe didn't die for this. (Harambe died for all of this) I'm rustled.**

 **3\. Gowithebeat: Glad I could make it worth your time; I'll do my best to live up to your expectations!**

 **4\. Tsukoblue: That's what I was aiming for. I don't feel like comedy is my particular specialty, but humor is necessary in a story to prevent things from being taken overly seriously. I poured a lot of humor into the early chapters, and almost everything since then has been very dramatic, so I felt the need to lighten the mood.**

 **5\. imHatred: Thanks! I try to be a little unique with the characters, most of the time...anyone who's been in the fandom on this site for long enough will know that there's some specific tropes I'm borrowing from other fics, but that's okay. We can't all be 100% original, 100% of the time. Hell, it's fanfiction. Now, imagine Kurama talking in 2006/2007-era emo speak. "I can has moar ramen pls? LOL XD ha!"**

 **...on second thought, don't do that. I want to hurt myself now, after writing that.**

 **6\. Ordo-Silver: After that sucker gut-punched us all, we needed a laugh. Glad I could help you out.**

 **7\. Noahendless: I do my best!**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"Danzo."

Naruto was apart from Tayuya and the Rookie Twelve for the first time in three days. In the precious few minutes he had to himself, he sat across a small table from the man whose moral ambiguity and assassin's reputation had caused the moniker, _Yami no Shinobi,_ to stick. There was a candle in each corner of the room, their flames unwavering as they slowly burned.

"You have questions. I have answers." The one-eyed elder said. "Just tell me what these bloodied hands can do. No games, no deceptions...Hokage-sama."

Perhaps it was Danzo's deference that irritated Naruto so much. More likely, the blonde simply had a hair-trigger temper.

"Holy shit, do I have a laundry list. Where do I start?"

"The beginning is generally a good choice."

Naruto's unamused glare made Danzo chuckle lightly.

"You'll have to forgive this old man. A blade of wit is about all I have left."

"You killed my grandfather." Naruto stated, point-blank. "The same one whose hitai-ate I'm wearing now."

"Ah, so Jiraiya took you to those ruins? The memory of your clan is long...far, far too long to be natural. We had arrived too late to save them, Josuke was the last one left alive, and his death prevented any sentimentality from clouding my decision on the obliteration of Uzushio and those who had sacked it. Out of a more personable sense of recompense, your mother was well-looked-after while she grew up. Hiruzen and I both regretted that we couldn't afford you the same...protection."

"You ordered the death of the Uchiha."

"Itachi's lips have grown loose in his time away from home." Danzo observed. "Yes, it's true, I was the one who issued the massacre. I was the one who gave Itachi the choice to save his brother, or to die with his clan. Whether or not he chooses to believe me, I always intended on honoring that promise. Do you know what would have happened if they had gone unchecked?"

"I know that nobody deserves to be vilified for following orders. It destroyed Sasuke's mind, and it still torments Itachi." Naruto shot back.

"That's a lie. Itachi is a master of the Ne _nindo._ He shows nothing, feels nothing, and carries out his orders to the letter on behalf of his village...but war would have followed, if the Uchiha had been allowed to do as they please. Blame it on the Nidaime and his xenophobic oppression of their clan, but they were willing to murder innocent people, and ninja who meant them no harm. It was a choice of allowing a civil war, still fresh in the wake of the Kyuubi's attack, or sacrificing a small portion to save the larger one."

"So what changed? What happened to Tsunade and Jiraiya?" Naruto demanded.

"I don't need to explain to you that your grandmother was a poor gambler. On your last mission, she gambled almost everything she had on you...and she lost. The whole village lost. Whether you like it or not, your status as a Jinchuriki makes you a weapon. The Kyuubi is a symbol of natural disaster, and war, on a catastrophic scale. Your disappearance allowed old grievances to come to light. But, as his disciple, you deserve to know that Jiraiya was the one who attacked first."

Danzo paused, swallowing the saliva that had gathered in his mouth before continuing.

"I stayed out of the infighting, but I know what happened. Everyone was well-intentioned, nobody actually meant to kill or cripple their own allies. Then the Akatsuki came...all three of the Uchiha. Obito started the killing, and that was when the war began in earnest. Itachi killed Obito, Hyuuga Hiashi killed Jiraiya and was killed by Jiraiya. Kakashi killed Tsunade."

"You can't be serious." Naruto's disbelief was palpable. "You're telling me that not only did you let the Akatsuki waltz right into our village, but that Hinata's dad killed Jiraiya, and that Hatake 'those who abandon their allies are worse than garbage' Kakashi killed his Kage?"

"Every word is true. I told you I wouldn't deceive you." Danzo's face, wrapped in bandages as it was, betrayed no emotion. "Konan probably said as much, didn't she? And you refused to believe."

The old man would have laughed, across the table from the young man who so eerily reminded him of Hiruzen. He would have, were it not for the political weight that all his actions carried. He sighed, leaning back into his chair and reclining.

"The state of the world is violently dire." Danzo continued. "A scroll was reverse-summoned into my office, before the battle for our village. Kumogakure has been destroyed, in a manner similar to what happened here. Iwagakure will follow shortly, if it hasn't been destroyed already. Suna has lost its Kage and the ruling family is absent. You already know that Kiri is recovering from its own civil war. A second scroll came after the battle, and it said that the Akatsuki's leader is making a move to destroy Suna. Do you know what that means?"

"It means...he wants a war. The five Great Nations, if not the entire shinobi world, against the Akatsuki. He wants to fight, and he thinks he can win."

"He captured four Jinchuriki in one strike, and I doubt that the Nanabi and Hachibi are outside of their grasp. He sacrificed one member of his group to advance two-thirds of the way to his goal...whatever he intends to use the Biju for. You, your girlfriend, and the Nibi host are the only free Jinchuriki, and possibly the only living ones. Whether the rest of the world likes it or not, Konoha is now the major seat of power for the Akatsuki's opposition."

"And I'm supposed to use that as a bargaining chip?" Naruto asked. "What's your angle here even look like? There's no way you'd say this much without an agenda behind it."

"My 'angle,' as you put it, is to make sure that you understand what's at stake. Under normal circumstances, your rise to the position of Hokage would be buoyed with festivals and treaties to make you look favorable for matters of both foreign and domestic policy. You don't have that luxury. Whether you choose to be iron-handed about banding together what allies you find, or you believe that alliances of professed friendship will truly last...you don't have time to wait. None of us have time to wait. The longer we delay, the more likely it is that we'll be destroyed individually."

Naruto watched the candle to his right, behind Danzo, flicker and die.

"That is Kumo." The elder shinobi pronounced solemnly.

The lights behind Naruto weakened, their flames far smaller than they had been moments ago.

"Suna and Kiri."

The candle behind Danzo's right side went out.

"Iwa. And, if left alone..."

The flames facing Danzo's eye went out, and the room would have been bathed in total darkness if not for the unholy glow of Naruto's eye sockets.

"I'll leave you to your thoughts." Danzo said, vanishing in a _shunshin_ as Naruto processed the words he'd heard.

* * *

"Kurotsuchi-chan..." Deidara said, practically singing as he dragged out the vowels in his target's name. "How are you?"

Kurotsuchi stopped dead in her tracks, looking right at the man she'd considered an older brother before his defection.

"What are you doing here?" She hissed.

The foothills around them were lush with grass, trees sparsely spread on the crests of nearby hills. In the moments of silence that followed her question, four bodies dropped to the ground behind her; the Anbu detachment from Konoha that had tailed her to ensure her safe arrival was dead now, and she didn't need to guess who the killer was.

"I'm here to keep you safe. It's not something you're going to enjoy, though."

"You're gonna keep me from going to Iwa? Why?"

Deidara shrugged, deciding that he wouldn't hide the truth from Kurotsuchi.

"Because everyone in there, and I do mean _everyone_ , is about to die. Not even something I'm causing, either. It's not like I have any loyalty left for them."

Kurotsuchi saw smoke on the horizon, coming from the north. Visually, it was a thin trail, but to be seen at the distance they were at...it was coming from a massive source.

"Oh, my bad. It, uh, looks like Sasori and Kakuzu may have gotten out of hand. Itachi too, probably, that bastard. I'll revise my statement: everyone is _already_ dead."

"Why?" Kurotsuchi yelled, kunai appearing in her hands. "Why would you? How could you?"

Deidara turned his face away from the former Tsuchikage-to-be, though she would never know whether it was out of anger or guilt. In an instant, his demeanor had changed.

"You don't know the Akatsuki's leader." The artistic arsonist said. "You don't know what fear or pain are until he makes you feel them. This was a chance to keep you alive, and I took it. I was just supposed to stall your arrival until after they were done, but you need to go back to Konoha. Keep yourself safe, run, and live."

"But how can I-"

"Run." Deidara commanded. "Please."

Kurotsuchi turned her back on her village, and began to return the way she'd come.

Deidara smirked as he watched her leave, smoke on the horizon vanishing as his light Genjutsu dispelled. Iwa hadn't been destroyed. Yet.

He considered flying toward the Akatsuki's other members, content to watch the devastation unfold, but decided against it. The less he saw of the slaughter that would happen, the better for his already fragile sanity. He'd heard stories of his compatriots' deeds, and believed with fair certainty that he was among the Akatsuki's weaker members; while that idea was relative, since each of them had their own strengths and weaknesses, his nukenin record consisted of little more than property damage and the occasional homicide, compared to the outright slaughter that Itachi, Kisame, Kakuzu and Sasori were renowned for.

His art was devastating, but had glaring weaknesses to anyone who looked for long enough. Sasori had practically given his life away in exchange for the answer to puppetry's weakness, able to control more than a hundred puppets through the control of another puppet which he stood inside. Itachi's stealth and speed were legendary, earning him renown even as a child at the end of the Third Great War. Kakuzu had lived for longer than any other man on earth, and quiet tales of, "the shambling man," could be heard at night to frighten children to sleep.

Maya, if that was her real name, was an enigma to Deidara; that suited him just fine, as anything to do with the Uchiha clan was generally better left alone. Kisame was little more than a mad dog, searching for none but the strongest opponents in order to test his mettle. The Third Great War was rife with stories of Kisame's brutality, de-limbing his opponents before killing them, or pinning them down and allowing his sword to consume their chakra until they died.

Deidara could skip out on the carnage that would befall his homeland. He'd played his part already.

* * *

"So, how do we want to do this?" Kakuzu asked. "There's no easy way to go about it, but I'd like some kind of plan."

"My plan is to kill them. My strategy is to hit them until they're dead." Kisame said jokingly. "Alright, but seriously, isn't planning your department, Itachi?"

The Uchiha nodded, seeing that the sky was beginning to darken.

"Night is coming. I'll move in alone."

"That sounds...foolish." Sasori said. "Are you sure you're in your right mind?"

"I single-handedly committed the most lethal attack on Konoha in the history of the village's history. More than three hundred people died in one night, and I killed every one of them...do not doubt me, Sasori. If you hear a crow's call, then move in and attack with abandon. Until then, however, let me do as much of the work as I can."

Itachi unsheathed a tipless tanto, his Rinnegan reflected on the length of the blade. The ripple pattern in his eyes wasn't the one he'd grown up seeing, nor the one he was accustomed to, but he had more important things to worry about than his own cosmetic changes.

"When we die, we all die in vain."

As the moon rose, Itachi vanished. His allies waited...and they would continue to wait.

The first victims Itachi chose had left a window open on the second floor of their home. He crept in, moving until hidden, and he took six lives in two seconds; the parents and their four children. The oldest looked to be sixteen, and the youngest was four or five. Itachi felt no remorse, moving to the next home.

His preferred entry method was through top-floor windows, though most of them weren't open the same way as the first. However, a counter-measure had been prepared: small-area silencing seals, allowing him to destroy whatever surface the tag was attached to withough a single decibel escaping. The tanto from time spent in Ne was his chosen weapon, and the silence of the night allowed him to quietly slit the throats of his chosen targets.

Despite the fact that Itachi's soul had embraced tranquility, his hands moved with the intention of a violent desecration of life. His actions were natural and slack, not the measured or carefully controlled approach of someone who committed their acts out of a disgusted necessity. Why should he think that way? Their lives meant no more to him than anyone else's, the blood they left on his hands could easily be washed away. The further into the night he worked, the more easily he slew his sleeping prey, leaving no survivors in any house he visited.

He lost count of how many times he'd dried his tanto on a dead man's rags. In all truth, it had gotten...boring?

He let the signal be heard, a crow's caw that let the rest of the Akatsuki's members know to attack. Seconds later, the obliteration of Iwagakure's southern gate was brazenly apparent; apparently, Kakuzu's definition of, "village destruction," entailed that the people be awake and at least somewhat conscious. Itachi was alright with that, though.

Finishing the murder in the last building he'd entered, he fled and began to exert his Rinnegan's power. He hadn't gotten a chance to experiment with it, so now would be a good time to understand what his limitations were. He would start with the Tsuchikage Tower. A few quick _shunshin_ attempts got him to the top of the building, followed by a jump before he stretched his hand toward the ground.

"Shinra Tensei." He said, putting almost as much weight into his words as he did into the technique. The building gave way beneath him, crumbling down as he landed on the roof. Jumping away just before it hit the ground, he didn't have time to admire his handiwork; they knew he was here now.

* * *

If he was being honest with himself, Nagato felt a small twinge of remorse for the events that were about to happen. Sunagakure was the only major village that had held no ties to Uzushio, and had attacked Iwa or Konoha directly during the three Great Wars. On paper, there was no reason or justification for his actions.

The truth of the matter was that he needed to crush them. After the major villages were sacked, the smaller ones would rush in, and chaos would ensue. However, it wouldn't be difficult for Nagato to either unite them under his banner or crush them. And then, when the last vestiges of humanity had finally fallen into line with his rule, he could begin his new world.

That new world couldn't begin until life in Sunagakure came to an end.

He had seen it. The same thing would happen here as it had in countless other times and worlds, the boundaries between them almost nonexistent to the Rinnegan's power. There was no mountain that could shield him from the prying eyes of sensors, but there were plenty of things that he could do besides that. As he'd traveled, he'd gathered chakra to manipulate weather patterns, until the humidity in the desert was strong enough to bring rain. That rain was charged with chakra, eliminating any sensor's ability to search for chakra that laid outside the village. It also interfered with the barrier over Suna that alerted their defense force to intruders; because the rain was charged with Nagato's chakra, and falling constantly, the passing of Chikushodo into the village wouldn't spike the alarm.

From there, it was almost child's play to wipe the village out. He'd already sent the summoning path inside, and now all he had to do was concentrate.

Chikushodo summoned the rest of the Rikudo Pein. They began their attack. Linked by four of their five senses, only touch separating each path from the others, they proved an effective force. A _Shinra Tensei_ swept shinobi back like an ocean's tide, blood spraying from each victim of Pein as they died where they stood.

"This is the price you pay for your defiance of my will." Tendo spoke, Yahiko's reanimated corpse attacking with precise methodology. "Repent now, and I will kill you quickly. You stand before a god."

The cacophony was immense, but the rain drowned out the destruction from outside. History would speak of the drowning of the desert, and how the emissary of the dead gods would claim responsibility.

Mercy was not a quality that Pein was known for. He was a harsh god, a cruel god.

An old god.


	65. Blood From a Stone, Rain in the Desert

**I meant to have this chapter out last night, but as it happens, I enjoyed my 1 day off before 6 days working. _C'est la vie_ , as the French say. I hope this still finds all of you as well as it would have yesterday.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. RedCide47: After reading that, I added on a little extra to this chapter's ending because I wanted to give it a bit more 'oomph.' I try to end my chapters with more solidity than the bulk of my chapters, so thank you for the compliment!**

 **2\. ForgottenGrimoire: You know...I can kind of see it. In a strange, mildly terrifying way. Just imagine Sasori's head slowly rotating in a full circle while croaking out the words: _"Dango, dango, dango, dango, dango, dango...daikazoku..."_**

 **3\. Noahendless: Truth be told, that's honestly not in the plan. Neither one of those, actually. I've always believed that sacrifice is an important part of a supposed, "heroic," narrative structure. Gain can only be judged by loss. So, he has lost, and now stands to gain...or lose...even further.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"Ah, I love it. The sights, the smells..." Kisame grinned, the Samehada running backwards to shred his current opponent in half.

A kunai through the eye followed, ensuring the Iwa-nin's death as the shark-man moved on. Behind him, a trail of bloody corpses stretched back beyond eyesight, but that was no different for any of the other Akatsuki members in the thick of the battle. He'd never seen Maya fight before, but the Uchiha woman was tearing through her opponents with more ferocity than he'd ever seen Itachi display. The elemental nature of her attacks didn't matter to her, she threw out all five basic natures in seconds.

Her Mangekyou whirled; she seemed untouchable as weapons and jutsu passed through her, leaving her unharmed. One by one, and then in greater numbers, anyone who chose to attack her died.

Kisame made a mental note to never get in Maya's way. Not that he was afraid, of course...but when someone had that kind of strength, you didn't run against them. It was part of why he and Itachi had worked so well together: they didn't run counter-intuitively to one another.

Kakuzu and Sasori had split off from the others, and Kisame was perfectly fine leaving them unaccounted for. He held no regard for the idea of taking a corpse and turning it into a near-autonomous weapon, something that both men did with great gusto. Though Kakuzu only technically took the _hearts_ of his fallen foes, that was still enough to give Kisame the heebie-jeebies.

As a _Doryuheki_ rammed into the Samehada, Kisame stopped his thoughts and refocused on the battle at hand. He was here for one purpose, and that was to kill as many people as he possibly could. Anything less wasn't just quantifiable as insubordination, but also as a disservice to his own prowess. Though he wasn't an egomaniac in the same way that his mentor from the previous generation of the Swordsmen had been, Kisame still had his pride as a ninja to think about; he had a reputation to look after.

Still, as he watched Itachi rise into the night sky...or, at least, he assumed it was Itachi...he couldn't help but wonder about the feeling that he was just a single krill in an ocean full of whales. The _Shinra Tensei_ that followed was strong enough to flatten the uneven ground beneath the Kinslayer, a shockwave knocking almost everyone down.

Kisame grinned. Maybe the whales were on his side after all.

* * *

The moon rose. Though he didn't know it, Nagato was already done by the time the rest of the Akatsuki had finally begun their battle. The Rikudo Pein had been dispersed, and Sunagakure was little more than rubble in the desert. Nagato was left alone, with his thoughts and the shadows of the night, in this tomb of the living where the God-Emperor had once reigned.

"I am one." He mused. "They were legion."

It was true, but not exactly a fair statement. Each one of the Rikudo Pein was an S-ranked ninja in their own right, despite the fact that they were all puppets with one individual skill. Nagato was the strongest member of the Akatsuki, an organization that only garnered the most powerful S-rank nukenin into its elite official ranks. Any one of them was skilled enough to infiltrate and destroy whatever place they chose.

Still, there was something to be said for the fact that such a significant numerical advantage had yielded no fruit. Sitting on a rocky outcropping, Nagato stared at the moon as it rose further into the starry sky. In the wild, where no light shone, it was impossible to even begin counting the small points of light that denoted other stars...other places, beyond the reach of even the strongest god.

"Other worlds than these." Nagato said to himself.

Worlds that none but those who lived there would ever know. Worlds that were untouched by Pein.

Worlds for other gods to know.

The dunes around Nagato trembled, and he knew it would be time to leave soon. The worms would be coming to claim the dead, as they had done for so long. Perhaps they were from one of those ancient, distant worlds beyond his sight? Nothing else on earth was even remotely similar to them, even in the desert...but, then, this was the last remaining piece of the world before the gods died. Who knew what ancient riches might be buried mere feet beneath the sand he stood on?

It didn't matter. The desert was a place of returning, not discovering. Among the dunes, life in the ancient land could begin again. If he had to take the earth he knew, and make it as empty as the land that stretched beyond his sight, then he would. He would live on, all rage and grace forgotten in the world of dead men's dreams, to lead mankind's last remnants to an era of peace.

That was what he told himself. What he had _always_ told himself. He had no reason to doubt the divine purpose that had been given to him, fated to him. Still, there had always been a feeling of unnatural circumstance around him, and the Hachibi Jinchuriki's dying words weighed on his mind.

 _"You're just...a pawn."_

Nagato had dismissed the words out of hand as an insult, but as he thought about the events of his life, he understood that he didn't possess the same level of control over the Rinnegan that the Rikudo Sennin was attributed. True, he was physically frail and tended to rely on his jury-rigged Rikudo Pein puppetry to manifest his powers, but he recognized a stark difference between himself and Itachi. That man had, somehow, gained his Rinnegan naturally. It was true that their clans were related, joined by ancient blood, but vast differences stood between the Uchiha and the Uzumaki.

Itachi's chakra hadn't changed its nature, the sense of it was still uniquely Itachi...albeit that it seemed more radiant, even holy. Nagato knew that his own chakra felt nothing like that, like oil on water and with a radiance like pyrite; brighter than gold, but neither pure nor rich. After awakening the Rinnegan, his chakra had seemed to take on a malevolent aura, possibly even a will of its own.

It was true that "Tobi," Obito, had been the vizier of the Akatsuki whose ulterior motives had determined the course of the group's actions, but Obito was dead and buried now. That left its remnants in Nagato's charge, to carry out his own will rather than the dreams of another.

It reminded him of an old poem: _In his house at the end of days, the Sightless One lies dreaming._

The line was one of many, but the rest of the scripture had been lost. It was no secret to anyone who studied history that "the Sightless One" was the Juubi, a demon whose form was a cruelly twisted effigy of man. The destruction of heaven had been vengeance for trapping the Biju in the mortal realm, followed by an unrestrained slaughter of the gods for their attempt to enslave the demons they'd stranded.

If there was one person to fear, it was the son-who-was-not. In him, all that Nagato stood against could be represented and opposed. The gathering storm was a contest of wills between the last remnants of their clan; the future of the Uzumaki clan was the future of the world.

He would reach for the future he had witnessed, through the negative, with all his deific might.

* * *

"So, how long do I have?" Naruto asked.

 **"For what?"** The Kyuubi answered with a question of its own.

"Oh, don't tell me you don't remember that shit you said before I killed Yagura. Corruption and losing myself, that junk. Well? I tore off the seal, _again._ And I'm assuming there's no magic fix this time, since it's stayed unsealed." Naruto rolled his eyes at the ancient demon.

 **"You have time. Not much, in the long run, but enough to do the things that you've set out to do. Fate is cruel, but it will take more than the preordained record set forth by the dead gods to keep you in place."** Kurama responded.

It wasn't the fox's intention to be cryptic, but two thousand years of speaking to humans had left it with unavoidable consequences and side-effects; one of those was a tendency to infuriate those it talked to. In honesty, it was glad that the action had been taken. Naruto was not its brother, but in another world, its brother had been Naruto. It knew what he was capable of, whether human or demon, or whatever fell between the two.

It remembered the thunder in the sky, the blinding flash of light that had signified the end of his life. The moment had been burned into its memory, etched with every detail. Shuddering, the demon took a moment to regain its composure.

 **"The tale repeats itself, once again."**

It had been two thousand years since a god had seen fit to meddle in the affairs of men and demons. But in the hour of darkness, where time stood still for one life and all, there hadn't been nine demons.

There had been ten.

It was true that Kurama's nature would corrupt Naruto's body, slowly rewriting individual cells until they were no longer human. As he drew on its power more deeply, the transformation would quicken, until there was nothing humane about Naruto anymore. His body was already primed for such an existence, born from the womb of Kurama's previous Jinchuriki and therefore already a pseudo-demon in his own right. Even if Obito hadn't attacked Konoha that night, Uzumaki Naruto would still have been a force to be reckoned with, far beyond the wide boundaries his heritage.

Instead, the story had played on. Naruto's chakra coils, since birth, had been flooded with the acidic youki that Kurama had possessed for centuries. His body, his mind, had been re-composed through chemical balances. Piece by piece, Kurama had fine-tooled his container into a bringer of war. Was it ethical? No. But what did a demon care about ethics?

Kurama cared about winning. More important than anything else was the notion that Antal Dara had to die. Kurama dreamed, and had dared to dream for more than two millennia, of a world that operated outside of any heavenly influence.

In its experience, gods were little more than tyrants with powers, not much different than demons. The defining trait that separated the two was that demons were more than happy to be left alone in Makai; gods wanted to impose their will upon some mortal realm or another.

"Alright, but really, can I get some kind of timetable here? You're leaving me in a bit more suspense than I'm okay with." Naruto huffed impatiently, standing on the water in the sewers of the _Shiki Fuin._

 **"That depends on you. The more you use my power, the more the process will accelerate. As it stands now, if you never touched my strength again, it could be decades. You could be well into your nineties, even a second century of life, by the time it finishes. But..."**

"Yeah, we both know it's not gonna happen like that. Realistically?"

 **"A year, at most. Anything beyond six months, I'll consider a personal miracle."**

Naruto's lidded eyes were fixed on Kurama's, staring unamusedly.

"Nice to know you have so much faith in my ability to win by myself."

 **"Look at every major fight you've ever been in and tell me _one_ time you haven't relied on me."**

"Okay. You've got me there. Still, though, I'm strong in my own right! I don't need you all the time."

That was a fair point. Naruto's mastery over Senjutsu was already enough to make him a formidable foe. In truth, the deck was stacked in Naruto's favor. However, Kurama knew just how poorly that would work when someone else did the shuffling. The cards weren't even close to the blond's hands, and the Oathbreaker would be coming soon to reclaim his rightful place as the scion of an age long past.

The battle was not one of men, though mankind were the tools of war that carried out the battle in place of their masters. It was an age-old war of vehement hate that spanned billions of bloody years. Kurama was no stranger to it, though it had chosen long ago to not participate in the way that had been ordained.

The Tree-Burner had erased any and all chance for the Biju to return to their homeland. Once already, Kurama had made certain he paid the price. Now it was Naruto's turn.

 **"One day, _struggler._ " **

If Naruto hadn't known better, he would have sworn that the Kyuubi was smirking at him. With a long, low sigh, he was gone from the seal. Left alone with its thoughts, Kurama made its decision: it would wait, as patiently as it needed to, for Antal Dara's death. For now, there was the matter of a false bearer of demonic gifts to deal with.

Long before Naruto was forced to renounce his humanity, they would put an end to Pein.

* * *

"There is disquiet in your soul." Itachi said evenly, standing above his next victim. Without warning or remorse, a kunai sunk down through the air and pierced the woman through her eye.

"Oh, here we go." Kakuzu groaned. "What's next, are magatama going to start floating in a circle around your neck? Some sort of staff to symbolize your ascetic mastery?"

"Well, since you asked..." Itachi smirked as his magatama necklace rose and spun in a circle. Unsealing the ancient gunbai that his great-great-grandfather had wielded during the Warring Clans Era, Itachi held himself up with its strength like a quarterstaff.

"Fuck you." The five-hearted Taki-nukenin growled in irritation.

"That's my job!" Izumi whined.

"You can keep it." Kisame's face scrunched up in disgust. "And, not to burst anyone's bubble, but there's still a little bit left to do."

There were still close to a hundred Iwa-nin left alive, now gathered together to salvage whatever remnants of their village that they could. One hundred against five, the Akatsuki were outmanned twenty times over.

Iwa's fragmented stragglers would need better odds than that. The charge was led by an _Iwadan no Jutsu,_ the Stone Bullet a staple attack that relied on speed far more than power. It wasn't fast enough, and the pebble was caught in Itachi's third _Shinra Tensei._ It came to a grinding halt, mere inches from the Uchiha's face, before rocketing back upon its caster at a speed that only another Uchiha would have been capable of dodging.

There were no other Uchiha. Itachi had killed them all, and his tally rose once more as the _Iwadan_ went through its original caster's head.

Ninety-nine to five. The dogs of war were howling, and they had come to be fed. Death was the menu of the night, and by the hand of the bloody dawn, they would rest with full bellies.

Itachi didn't mirror the grin on Kisame's face. He just wanted the night to be over and done with. With kunai in his palms, a _Bansho Ten'in_ ripped two more Iwa-nin out of their places and led them to their deaths. Izumi vanished with the tell-tale swirl of the _Kamui,_ reappearing on the other side of their enemies. She cut through several of them, and as many turned to face her, Kisame and Kakuzu charged. Sasori hung back with Itachi, though it was because his puppet was doing the work.

"You never said anything about having an Uchiha puppet."

"The topic never came up." Sasori countered. "It's from the beginning of the Third War, a bit before your time."

The conversation fell off at that point. There was no cause to continue...though the idea, that one of his former clansmen was now another ninja's tool, was one that dug spurs into Itachi's pride. But, at the same time, he wasn't willing to make things come to blows over it.

The Samehada slid along several of Iwa's remnants, clumped too close together to be able to dodge. A controlled, small-area _Futon:_ _Atsugai_ landed in the center of their mass and ripped them apart. Finally, there was only one left.

"You'll pay for this!" He raged in agony, and his grief was palpable. "I swear!"

"We came here for blood. We got it." Sasori growled, before twitching chakra threads to cause his puppet to stab him through the heart.

The annihilation of Iwa had been completed. In one night, two of the five largest hidden villages had been sacked. In the last week, Konoha had suffered Konan's wrath and Deidara had made a crater out of Kumo. There was a level playing field, now, between the minor and major villages. The only thing to separate them was reputation.

"We should take separate routes." Kakuzu said. "We'll meet again in Ame, like Pein asked us to."

"I should probably try to find that moronic arsonist, then." Sasori said disgustedly.

"Well, it'd be kind of funny if we all just...left him behind." Kisame smirked.

There wasn't much discussion that followed. One by one, each of the Akatsuki's members fled from the graveyard city that they'd made with their own hands. Itachi and Izumi were there last, and in the time it took for the _Kamui_ to begin, they were already gone.

In that graveyard of stone soldiers, devoid of light or life in limb, the mountains began to sing. A hymn without melody, a chorus without words, to a coda with no end.

 _His deep dark eyes keep watch on his kingdom  
_ _And the mysteries that sleep safe inside his hall  
_ _His towers of stone shall not be overthrown  
For eternity it is guarded by the king  
_ _Insanity and the power that it brings_

 _Madness reigns in the Hall of the Mountain King._

Far away, in Konoha, a sword finished groaning in protest. The _Yama no O-Kyuden_ now wept for its makers. It had been named for the song of the mountains, given as a gift to its wielder's Uzumaki ancestors. But, just the same as Iwa's alliance with Uzushio had been reneged upon several decades ago, Uzumaki Naruto had felt no need to answer the call for aid. For their transgressions against his family, they had finally paid in equal blood.

He hoped that Itachi had made them suffer as they died.


	66. An Ancient Vice, Reborn Again

**Back again, with another chapter, before my day gets moving.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. tastybigsexy: Yep! We're inching closer...closer...it'll be time to throw down soon. Fasten your seatbelts.**

 **2\. Tsukoblue: Hey, a little humor every now and then isn't a bad thing after all! Glad you liked it!**

 **3\. iamcompton: Glad you're enjoying the ride! I don't have an actual, official chapter number planned out, but...it'll probably end before we get to triple digits. I don't know, honestly! I'll just write until the writing is done with me.**

 **4\. Noahendless: While they're a larger part of the backstory than the story itself (aside from Antal Dara, of course,) I can understand that desire. But, if you go back to look closely, I've already set up a lot of that; in this story, as I've stated explicitly once and referenced several times, those roles have already been filled by other characters. There's no need for Kaguya in this story, because the Juubi was/is an alt-timeline Naruto. Rei and Kouga, Naruto's "time-lost" children, are the Rikudou Sennin and her elder brother. One of Kurama's epithets for Madara is, "the Tree-Burner." As for the Shinto gods...I've peeled away, very much, from canon/traditional Japanese mythology. I intend to keep it that way.**

 **One of the old gods that many of you may not know is the one I've referenced several times when the scene focuses on Gaara: the God Emperor of the Dunes is meant to be Leto II Atreides from the _Dune_ series, which has one of the books named after his eventual title: _God Emperor of Dune._ Leto goes through a transformation where he binds proto-sandworms to his flesh, which grants him an unnatural longevity capable of allowing him to fulfill the future he's planned out due to his prescience.**

 **5\. RedCide47: If you're not on the edge of your seat now, you will be by the time I'm done with this chapter.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

Kurotsuchi had rushed, day and night, to make it back to Konoha and spread word of what had happened. Now, she stood before the presumptive Hokage, and had just finished recounting the details of her apprehension by Deidara and quick release.

She'd be lying if she said that Naruto's ever-closed eyes didn't unnerve her.

She'd be lying if she said that she was more comfortable when they were open.

"They're all dead." He mused. "Suna, Iwa, Kumo...Kiri is still in recovery from its civil war. We haven't even gotten to the point of trying to recover yet."

He remembered being tackled to the ground. Kakashi, lying prone atop him, clothing and jacket shed to cover Naruto's body more completely. The sight of his sensei burning into ashes was etched into Naruto's brain forever. Regardless of his faults or virtues, the now-deceased Anbu commander had used his final moments to save Naruto's life instead of his own.

"So where can we go from here?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto was never outside of the sight of at least two members of his rookie class, Kurotsuchi knew. The prodigal generation, called up to serve far earlier than anticipated.

"There's not much we can do." Shikamaru admitted with a sigh. "Troublesome as it is, we're playing against a stacked deck. Whatever it is that he's holding them for, we can safely assume that Nagato has at least five of the nine Biju, though I'm fairly certain he has the Nanabi as well. On top of that, he's the leader of Amegakure, and the Akatsuki is only composed of elite S-ranked nukenin."

"He wants a war." Kurotsuchi put the pieces together.

"He wants a _massacre._ " Sasuke corrected her.

"Sasuke's right. Jinchuriki are essentially a failed form of deterrence theory, which goes explained as, 'nobody attacks anybody because we all have a weapon that can destroy them completely.'" Shikamaru continued. "The Biju are even more powerful uncontained than when kept inside humans, and like I said, we can assume that Nagato has six of them in one place. With that kind of firepower, a group of S-ranked ninja housed there, and three of the five Great Nations in ruins...Amegakure is the most heavily defended place on earth."

"And...let me guess...we've got to go there and hit them." Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose. "Well, I don't think we have to guess who's leading _that_ suicide charge."

"I resent that." Naruto said.

"Resent it all you like, piss-for-brains, I'm not wrong."

Naruto's lips rolled inward as his cheeks puffed up in frustration, and Sasuke was sure that the blond would have rolled his eyes if he had them. He could _feel_ the intention of it. With a short sigh, Naruto dipped his head in Sasuke's direction.

"No, you're right. Like it or not, I'm gonna have to be there."

"Naruto...you're gonna like it. You always like it."

"Yeah, sure, but you think Tayuya or Tenten do? Actually, after what happened in that Oto base, Ten-chan may be ready to laugh at my corpse."

"We did the right thing." Shikamaru countered. "Otherwise, you wouldn't have made it to Konoha on time. The only thing that's keeping her from apologizing is her pride."

Kurotsuchi disagreed. She'd seen the bun-haired Kenjutsu specialist several times, and even if her behavior could have been called, "indifferent deference," there was nothing to suggest that she hated the man who'd been named Hokage. Of course, she didn't know the circumstances they were discussing, but she was making her judgement based on what she'd witnessed.

"What happened?" She asked.

"We had to leave her, _our,_ father. He was already dead, and he died to save her." Naruto answered bluntly. "She's angry because he didn't get the funeral he deserved...and I'm the reason."

 _"Hate me if you have to, Ten-chan, but we need to move."_ Those were the words he'd said to her, as they stood over Higurashi's corpse. _"Ninja don't get marked graves."_

He wasn't wrong.

"That's...I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked." Kurotsuchi closed her eyes.

"You couldn't have known." Naruto shook his head. "It's just one more thing I'll have to repent for, when I fight Pein in his own home."

He would do it the Uzumaki way, the Jie way. Headlong into the storm, his voice raised higher than his weapons. The heir to the dead gods would meet his match against the demon who'd killed them. There was no other way to resolve their conflict...and even if there were, the option would go forever unexplored.

That was just the kind of man that both of them were. Their mere existences were little more than a challenge to the other.

It was a challenge that Pein had sent, and Naruto fully intended to answer.

* * *

Han and Roshi's cooling corpses sat nearby, and Utakata's unconscious form was lifted away after another minute or so.

Gaara was afraid. He could see, before his mind, a golden path that he and all mankind might walk on. Doomed and destined, there was little he could do to manipulate that path from the confines of a captive's shackles.

 _ **There is a way to survive this, Muad'Dib.**_ Shukaku spoke within his mind, and Gaara listened.

 _How? Why?_

 ** _It will be...unpleasant. Unkind, for both of us. However, the other outcome that you and I face is worse. I, trapped for all time in the corpse-puppet of my brother. And you, dead on the ground where you lay. That's not appealing to you, either, I suppose?_**

Of course it wasn't. However, there was a reason why Gaara hesitated to accept the offer that Shukaku had extended; he knew where it lead, and he knew what had happened the last time something similar occurred.

Gaara was, at heart, a simple man. He held no desire for grand ambition, no will beyond the protection of those he loved. There were no dreams of power or glory in his heart.

To stay alive would be to accept that power, that burden, that glory. To spit in the eyes of the rain god, he would have to rise to equal stature with the Rinnegan-wielder. It was with great reluctance that Gaara extended a metaphorical hand to agree with the demon inside his belly...and then, the burning sensation began.

Shukaku's youki stopped being filtered into chakra through the seal, tattooed ink slowly erasing itself in a counterclockwise spiral from the top. As it did, the mark above his left eye bled profusely...or was it really blood? There was no cut, and the liquid leaking away from it didn't seem to be tangible.

It was all Gaara could do to keep from crying out in pain. But, the more his body hurt, the greater the wellspring of power that began to fountain inside of him. The flood of demonic strength that was slowly pouring into him crept like a spider through the tunnels of his veins. It touched his organs, his blood, his muscle and bone, and it made him give way to its might.

But Shukaku would not be consuming him.

It was true that he was Muad'Dib, the little mouse of the desert. But he was also Gaara, demon of the winds, and the Godaime Kazekage. When a mouse came across a predator, it would hide in a place that its predators couldn't hope to reach. When a demon was challenged, it would lash out with all the strength it had.

He could hear Utakata's screams as the Rokubi was slowly torn out of him. He was dying, and there was nothing the redheaded boy could do about it.

Perhaps it would have been a mercy, to have killed him on that day in Kiri. It would have spared him the trouble of dying now.

Still, the pins-and-needles feeling didn't go away as the transition continued. As more chakra began to leak out from underneath his fingernails, Gaara could feel his jaw resetting into a more triangular shape. His cornea were stained black, and his pupils became a perfect golden color. His bones became thicker, stronger, and more pronounced; those results lead, nearly naked as he was, to a much thinner and more gaunt appearance than was true.

Gaara bit his cheeks to keep himself from making any noise, and this time, it _was_ blood that began to flow. However, as he tasted it, he could already feel the taint that was coursing through his body. The symbol above his eye, the sigil for, "love," was no longer a tattoo; it was, now and forever, etched into the bone of his skull: a permanent reminder of where he'd come from, and all that he would stand for.

Eventually, the pain began to die down, and Gaara began to understand the purpose of his existence. Slowly, quietly, he began to make his way out of the cavern where he was held.

When an ancient voice, one that he recognized from...somewhere...boomed in protest of his absence, he decided not to be quiet anymore. His footsteps thundered in the small space, and as his charge broke through, he found himself in unfamiliar land. With the wave of a hand, he brought the cave's entrance down into rubble. While it did nothing to rescue his fellow Jinchuriki, Gaara reconciled himself to the fact that there was nothing he could have done, and hoped that it might delay whoever was inside.

When he turned around again, he found himself face-to-face with an orange-haired man whose face was riddled with piercings.

"Well done, Ichibi. I wouldn't have guessed that you, of the four, would be the one to wake and survive. I knew that one would, but...perhaps this is the best outcome. Now I can tell you how each and every one of your beloved citizens died, by my hand."

 **"I have seen it for what it is, and you for what you are, false prophet of the dead gods."** Gaara did not lie.

The prescience that he had been gifted with, after drinking water from the corpse of a sandworm, gave him a twisted vision of the past as well. In him were all people, in all places and past times, and all the actions they had or would take. Such was the gift of the life-water. Such was the gift of Shai-Hulud.

"You will bend a knee to me, whether or not I have to break your legs for that to happen." Pein assured the former Jinchuriki.

 **"Then strike, cowardly god."** Gaara taunted.

With every passing second, the youngest of the Sabaku siblings was gaining more power. As the seal on his gut unraveled further, with Pein watching it happen, there was an unmistakable tint of madness entering his conscious thoughts...but that madness was too weak to overpower his sense of self.

It was a failing of the seal's conversion that a Jinchuriki was so clearly visible to sensors, regardless of whether or not they used any jutsu. With the erasure of his seal, and the elimination of the liminal space that it provided, there was no way to distinguish demon from man anymore. No ninja had the sixth sense for youki detection.

So it was that a demon-powered _Renkuudan_ struck Pein from behind, without warning. The youki-charged technique, diametrically opposed to the holy power of the _Ame no Kami's_ eyes, had the effect of a hot knife cutting through butter. Immobilized by his first touch of true demonic power, there was nothing Pein could do to prevent several balls of tan-and-purple energy from knocking him to the ground.

 **"Now is not your time."** Gaara mused prophetically. **"But the corpse of the Gazing Pawn must go to meet the soul which held it captive on this earth. Why would you command him so, son of tides and eddies? The mind commands the body, and it obeys. The mind commands itself...and meets resistance."**

Without warning, without recourse, Pein felt the ground beneath him tremble. About the rushing, terrible heat of a beast more ancient than any man might hope to live to, nothing could be done. The rain fell down, but such a fact was no concern of Gaara's, or of the monster that would arrive. One particularly violent tremor caused the avatar of the rain to slip as he attempted to stand, small rocks breaking into rubble as, finally, the monster was revealed.

Up came its maw, ten yards in diameter as it consumed Yahiko's corpse whole. Pein had no chance to perform any jutsu, the chemical fire of the sandworm's belly erasing it from existence. Touched by the rain, it began to die, but such was its fated purpose; this Shai-Hulud had chosen its purpose, and Gaara held no grief in his heart for its passing.

The desert demon blew away like sand in a breeze, until no trace of his existence remained in the place where gods and men had died.

* * *

"So even you, too, leave me behind...Yahiko." Nagato said to himself.

He'd lost all connection with the Tendo Pein, and not even the King of Hell had been able to recall the body back from its oblivion. The body, and the chakra receivers that had kept it mobile in the decades after Yahiko's death, had been completely destroyed. The realization of his loneliness came like a crushing weight, buffeting his thoughts with an agony he hadn't known since his parents had died before his eyes.

All that he had now was Amegakure, and his duty to its people.

The rain fell down across Ame's borders, the same as it had done every day for more than two decades. Its god was slumped, shoulders heavy with the weight of his loss. For Nagato, there was nothing left. No one left. One by one, they had made their journey through the never-ending dark without him, and gone to a place that he could never reach or understand. His clan, his parents, Yahiko and Konan, Jiraiya...vanished, into the jaws of death.

The blame fell on Naruto's shoulders, Nagato assured himself. Had the Kyuubi Jinchuriki not been captured, Konoha would never have entered a civil war. Jiraiya wouldn't have died. Konan wouldn't have been driven to suicidal madness.

The Ichibi would have remained free, would not have destroyed Yahiko's body beyond repair.

Nagato would relish the feeling of his chakra receiver burying itself in the chest of the son-who-was-not. The dying screams of a demon, who'd clung to life for so long by naught but luck and overdrawn power, would play like music to his ears.

Nagato drowned himself in the violence of his fantasy, and the ecstasy of his imagined vengeance.

* * *

"Wait a minute. Let me get this sorted out."

Mei propped her elbows up on her desk, her hands bridged in front of her. It gave off a sort of menacing look, her eyes boring through whoever got caught in her field of vision.

"Utakata, Gaara, and both of Iwa's Jinchuriki were captured by the Akatsuki after their battle went far enough away from Konoha. After the Iwa-Kumo alliance was split into thirds, they were much easier to take out, and the battle was going well. And _then..._ another Akatsuki member appears, she throws explosive seals like they're going out of style. Thousands, millions of them. Enough to completely cover just about every surface inside Konoha. She then _activates_ all those seals, which requires almost too much chakra for anything but a Biju to provide. Blows the entire village sky-high. But you somehow manage to escape, to a man, with the only casualty being Utakata?"

"Well, yeah, that mostly sums it up. Then Naruto got a hold on her and didn't let go until she was dead." Zabuza said. "I swear to the dead gods, that brat scares the shit out of me more every time I watch him fight. I am really, _really_ glad he likes me."

"We got lucky on the bridge." Haku said. "He would have, and could have, killed both of us there."

"Haku...shut up."

"A googolplex of apologies, master Zabuza."

Mei put her head in her hands. And then, without warning or understanding, a malevolent aura began to fill the room. Grains of sand collected from the ground up, rushing wind causing the windows of her office to fly open and shake with the gale's howling.

First the apparition's feet were formed, then its legs. As the sand continued to coalesce, the dark aura came to contain itself, until none other than Sabaku no Gaara stood in their midst.

 **"My apologies."** He said. His voice was carrying far more weight, in the minds of those who'd heard him speak, than it had before. **"It was either escape by myself, or let none of us survive."**

The demon of the desert was alive and well. In the armor of his sand, he was immortal, even to the pain that ripped his heart in half.

"Kazekage-dono! How did you survive?" Ao asked.

 **"Neither Gaara, nor Shukaku, survived their captivity. I am...neither, and yet both. I am Hulasikali Wala. And I have come to tell you what must be done."**

It was true, what the earth-born demon had declared in the room where he stood. He was comprised of Gaara's body, the Shukaku's dominion over sand, Gaara's Futon nature, and both of their minds were joined inside of him. The youki housed within his body was a burning, buffeting heat from the depths of the desert-dwellers who'd existed long before men had come to the Zensunni desert.

Zensunni had become Zensuna, and then the first syllable had been lost to translated history. In the olden days, each of the desert-winds had held its own name. There was the six-klick wind, Pastaza, gentle and calm. The twenty-klick wind, Cueshma, was a strong breeze that could throw low-weight objects and make small children fly for a few moments. There was the hundred-klick wind, Heinali, the man-pusher. _Gaara,_ the desert demon who'd been slain long before Shukaku had come to the world of men, had been the offspring of a Heinali windstorm.

Then, last of all, was the wind so strong that it had gone unmeasured: Hulasikali Wala, whose appearance in the open desert spelled death for any it touched. It was this wind that he had named himself for, and it was this wind that he would bring with him to strike his enemies down. The prescient desert demon had made no mistake with his choice, for there was a meaning behind his name. He was Hulasikali Wala.

Hulasikali Wala, the wind that eats flesh.


	67. With a Heart of Steel

**I'm here and, to the surprise of absolutely nobody, I've brought a new chapter with me. How cool is that, right? I'm thinking, one more chapter before the action gets going.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. Noahendless: Fair enough. I just wanted to make sure you were on the same page with me, is all.**

 **2\. iamcompton: You're welcome! I'll do my best.**

 **3\. Conchamp1998: Yeah, you're definitely thinking right. I've set up several references to WOT throughout the story; I'm glad you picked up on them.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"Naruto."

"Hey, Temari. What's up?"

He'd sat down across from the Suna native, at a small restaurant that served traditional desert fare; it was something of a comfort vice for the young woman, being able to eat the food she'd grown up with despite being so far from home.

"When are we going?"

Naruto didn't need to play dumb. He knew exactly what she meant. Ignoring the bustle of the restaurant around them, he took a sip of water before speaking.

"There's...not an easy way to say this. The Kyuubi, as a side-effect of its powers, has a psychic link with all the other Biju. Yesterday, it stopped being able to feel the Ichibi."

"He's dead?"

"No." Naruto refuted the question immediately. "It still has a lock on four through eight, and they've all been sealed away. So, I think something else happened. Kankuro mentioned something a long time ago, about one of the dead gods...the God Emperor, who ruled over the desert? There's a prelude to that myth, apparently. The God Emperor used to be human, but he somehow fused himself with baby sandworms and gained an immortal body."

"And you think Gaara...he...did the same thing? With Shukaku?"

There was a brief pause as their food was brought out.

"There's a demon's aura in Kiri, apparently. The Kyuubi can feel it. But it's impossible for new demons to appear in this world, and it can't feel the Ichibi's presence anywhere in the world. So, yeah, that's what I'm thinking. My guess is, it was a, 'do this or we die,' situation...not that it'd make it any easier to swallow."

"No, it doesn't. But, in Kiri? Why wouldn't he come back here, to Konoha?" Temari asked.

"Mei. He must know what's happened to the other villages, and he wants to make sure we're not fighting alone. Awful considerate of him."

Temari let out a short chuckle at that.

"Only because it's you." She said. "Ever since that battle during the Chunin Exams, he's looked up to you. When he became Kazekage, he told me that he wanted to emulate the kind of leader that he thought you would be."

"Trying to do my job, when I didn't even have it yet? What kind of...that doesn't even make sense!" Naruto laughed.

"No, but he's still my baby brother, and if you make fun of him again..." There was a dangerous glint to Temari's eyes, and an edge to her tone. Of course, they both knew that Naruto would win any confrontation between them, but that didn't change the fact that she was protective of her family.

Quietly, Naruto amused himself with the idea that Temari might have been a better choice for Kazekage than her brother.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Still, after calling me out here...feel better now?"

"I do." Temari nodded, closing her eyes and allowing a small smile to grace her face. It wasn't much, but she knew that Gaara was out there somewhere; he hadn't left her behind.

The rest of their time was spent eating, and enjoying the meal.

* * *

Neji, Ino, and Kiba had all sat down in a room that was overlooking Naruto's lunch-date with Temari, but they weren't necessarily paying much mind to him. After all, Sakura and Hinata were both inside the building with the pair; they were just close in the event that they were needed...which wasn't likely. Still, they thought, it was good to be prepared.

"You know, of all the things I never pictured myself as, 'clan head' has to be at the top of that list." Neji said. "Feels a bit surreal. Bad as it sounds, though, I'm glad the clan elders are gone."

"Nah, I think we're all there with ya on that one." Kiba gave a curt, barking laugh. "I'm not really in line with all that servitude bullshit. Ya know?"

"Oh, believe me, Kiba...we know." Ino giggled. "But as long as Naruto's around, you'll never be top dog."

"Hey, hey, after the hell we went through to get him back? I'm followin' him through hell or high tide. Besides, ain't a chance in hell I'd win that fight. Couldn't do it two years ago, and I can't do it now."

"The more you two argue, the more you sound like you've been married for the last thirty years." Neji's grin looked out of place on his normally stoic face.

Ino and Kiba's sputtering denials, which all too quickly roused themselves into full-throated irritant rage, fueled the Hyuuga's mirth.

"I'm joking, relax. You're too hot-headed to be in a relationship, can you imagine how reckless your children would be? Your...telepathic...werewolf...children?"

Akamaru howled with laughter at his master's expense.

"Get over yourself, buddy." Kiba scowled. "'Man's best friend,' my ass, you traitor."

"You know, maybe he'd be more loyal if you didn't constantly make yourself into everyone's bitch." Ino's smirk was vicious.

"Oh, yeah? We'll see about that, you-" Kiba was interrupted when one of Ino's fingers touched his lips.

"I wonder how into it we'd have to get to embarrass Neji? I mean, we've made fun of you, and just being seen around you is a horror story in itself for me, so...thanks for the dating advice, Neji!"

As the blonde advanced on him, it took all of Kiba's bicep strength to keep Ino away.

"Neji, you asshole!"

"I think I'm gonna walk Akamaru. Should I let Naruto know that you two are going to be a while?"

The door swung shut, and as Ino got away from him with a laughing smile, Kiba began to grieve for the friends he'd convinced himself that he had.

* * *

A short, broad desk sat between them.

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to see you before this, Shizune. I'd make excuses, but..."

"But you don't have any." The brunette medic was tired, beyond her own capability to express. "It's okay. After Tsunade-sama died, everybody just seemed to...forget about me. I thought it was better that way. I thought maybe _you_ would be better that way."

Though he had no eyes that she could watch, his expression told all about how upset that statement made him. Naruto was not a man who gave up, and he wasn't the kind of man who enjoyed watching his loved ones give up either.

"You know, you and I are first cousins, once removed." Naruto said with a grin. "Hell, technically, you and Sai are directly first cousins. I know you don't have a bond with him or I like you did with obaa-chan, but you still have people here. Nobody can fault you for your loyalty to Tsunade, or how much you hate Kakashi."

Shizune's countenance darkened at the mention of the dead Jounin's name, but Naruto carried on regardless.

"And besides, I'll be here for you. Whatever you need, whenever you need me."

As Naruto reached out to lay a hand on top of Shizune's, Tonton squealed and attempted to bite him. The medic pulled her pet back, chiding the pig with an outraged call.

"Tonton!"

"No, it's fine. He knows what's happening to me, I guess."

Naruto's smile was toothy this time, and Shizune had a brief double-take; human teeth didn't normally have that many points. There was an exception for the Seven Swordsmen, who used a jutsu to transform their teeth into those of sharks, but this was different. More menacing. Naruto's maw was filled with bones that were thinner, still conical rather than triangular. They didn't look to have an animal's razored edge.

"Then...what's happening to you?" She asked, despite the sinking feeling that she didn't want to know the anwer.

"After Konan destroyed the village, I did a...pseudo-unsealing of the Kyuubi. The Shiki Fuin is still in place, so it's not free, but its youki isn't being filtered into chakra anymore. If we're being realistic about how much of its power I use in my high-level fights, I may have less than a year before I become a demon just like it. That, or I'll lose all sense of self and the Kyuubi will take full possession of my body. It's a bit of an all or nothing deal, really."

Once again, that inhumanly-fanged smile put her on edge. Naruto's nonchalant matter-of-fact way of speaking only served to amplify the effect.

"That's terrible!"

"No. It just is. I've made my peace with it." He shrugged. "Whether I need to give up my life or my humanity, there's something only I can do, and this is a war worth fighting."

"You can't possibly-" Shizune didn't get to finish, as Naruto shook his head and raised a hand to stop her.

"The only way you can do something about this is to stop hiding. Don't hide and try to drown your grief in loneliness...fight for the world that Tsunade wanted to see. Make it happen for the rest of her family that's still alive. I can't force you to make that choice, but it would make me happy to have you on my side."

Naruto stood, walking away. Before the door closed, however, he had one last thing to say:

"Dovie'andi se tovya sagain."

The words were another old Jie phrase, learned from his pseudo-foster father. They were a declaration of war, in their own way, and a promise that his luck would never run out.

 _It's time to toss the dice._

* * *

Tenten was leaning over her anvil, hammer swinging down furiously on heated metal to shape it. In the wake of her father's death, and the obliteration of Konoha's previous existence, she was the only blacksmith in the wrecked citadel.

She'd never been so sick of forging kunai or shuriken in her life. In a way, she envied Naruto; almost every single weapon that he had on his person, at all times, was actually a clone that had made a near-complete physical _henge._ They had all the properties of their weapon-states, but a charge of chakra was enough to revert them to their original form if the need arose. Alternatively, he could dispel them, and replenish his chakra by absorbing however much the clone still possessed.

This was a strategy that only worked for Naruto, of course. Nobody else had his kind of stamina, or chakra reserves that were so deep...which meant that they needed real, forged weapons. Which meant that they needed to come to her.

"Jeez! If you keep this up, I don't know that I'll be able to recognize you under all the ash and soot." Naruto said as he walked in.

 _Speak of the devil._ Tenten told herself.

"Go away." She said, her eyes not lifting from the kunai she was forging.

"No, I don't think so." Before she could say anything to protest, five clones had appeared, and each of them began to work in their own ways. While Higurashi's shop had been blown to smithereens by Konan's suicidal attack, his tools and workshop had miraculously survived beneath the rubble.

Then, with just as little warning as when they'd appeared, Naruto's clones vanished. They'd organized the tools and materials, clarified the manifest's requests, and brought a sense of order to the sweltering heat of the forge-room. With that, Naruto began the process of helping her do her job. He hadn't been taught to the extent that Tenten was, but he knew enough to keep a weapon sharp. And, really, that was all that mattered.

Despite that, each kunai and shuriken that he made looked roughly-hewn...even malformed, or poorly-worked. It was the same in appearance as his falx, forged with the Kyuubi's chakra two years ago.

And yet Naruto knew that, despite their ugliness, these blades would cut far deeper than an ordinary one. The Kyuubi's power was one that had been gained through more than two thousand years of war against the gods who killed its brother; weapons made with its chakra, or pure youki, would be instruments of death unlike anything their world had seen.

He relished the thought.

While it was true that Naruto wanted to resist the urge to become more like the demon inside him, it was also a hard thing to pull away from. Never mind that he was practically built for war, or that his only loss had been purposeful...the Kyuubi's youki was addictive, a chemical rush running through his body at all times to give him the kind of high that long-time junkies only _dreamed_ of having.

Naruto wasn't aware of time's passing, or the hunger that began to gnaw inside of him, or any of the stray thoughts that entered his mind.

"The flame and the void." He said.

"The flame and the void." Tenten answered back.

All that existed was the heat of the forge, the hammer in his hand, and the metal that he struck. The time to move would be soon, far sooner than anyone was comfortable with.

As the Hokage, it would be his job to command from a place of safety so that he could survive and continue to lead. As a Jinchuriki, his presence was needed on the battlefield to do as much damage as possible. As an Uzumaki, it was his duty to kill Pein before the Akatsuki's leader could do more damage.

Days would pass before they left. Weeks could potentially go by until Naruto decided that his gathered forces were strong enough to contest Nagato's army. Once Kiri and Kumo were banded together with him, it would be time.

"Spar with me." He said offhandedly. "You need a break...spar with me."

He didn't move away from the anvil he stood by, but he could feel her gaze upon him. It was the kind of chilling, focused stare that could be considered a death threat if he wanted to interpret it that way.

"You're trying to give me an excuse to fight you. You think that'll solve this?" Tenten asked.

"Even if it doesn't, we both know that you want to. You can't get the thought out of your head, right? Beating the snot out of me and just leaving me there, like I made you leave-" Naruto caught the kunai between two fingers, a bittersweet grin on his face. "I knew you'd agree. Come at me with everything you have, _nee-chan._ "

Many of the Rookie Twelve watched from afar as the two left their forge and moved to the empty field behind it. The look they shared, before turning their attention back to the coming fight, was one of worry; Naruto was strong, but he was goading Tenten; that was too dangerous to be considered a smart move.

"Rules?" Tenten asked.

"You can do whatever you want. All I need," Naruto said as he took the falx from his back, "is this. The sword he gave me, against the daughter he raised."

Tenten's eyes narrowed, the same thought running through her mind as it had in so many others': the weapon in his hand wasn't a sword...it barely even counted as worked metal. Rough-worked, hooked, its whole design was anomalous to everything Tenten had ever learned about swords or their creation.

"Go." Naruto urged her. "Kill me if you can. Avenge the honor you think I took from his death."

He batted away two shuriken with the back of his left hand, but the stars remained caught in his flesh; he didn't seem to mind, only pushing her further. Spinning his sword around so that the blunt outer curve was facing Tenten, he shrugged.

"You can do better than that." Naruto chided her. "Come at me for real, this time."

He offered no resistance when she ran him through with a katana, and his grip on it forced her to back away. Once she was separated from him again, he left the blade inside his gut.

"Again." He commanded, parrying an axe-kick with the flat of his blade as he spoke. But when he did, Tenten burst into smoke. A foot went onto his back, kicking him down and sending the sword all the way through his body.

He vanished with a _shunshin_ _,_ reappearing behind her and smacking her in the ribs with the dull edge of his sword. Though the force behind the blow was far from minimal, it barely had an effect.

"Dammit, fight me!" Tenten growled.

"It's not my fight. It's yours." Naruto countered, picking the shuriken out of his hand and watching the cuts heal. "Your father and your brother died in the same place, and we are all that's left. You, the sole survivor...and I, the shell of what was."

This time, Tenten unsealed the ugrosh that had belonged to her paternal grandfather. One end of the head was a wide hammer, while the other was a broad axe, and at both ends of the haft were spear-points. Naruto took a moment to appreciate the weapon's design. What you couldn't chop, stab. What you couldn't stab, crush. What you couldn't crush, chop.

The flat of his falx blocked the hammer that came swinging down, and Naruto slid under the heavy weapon to plant a double-spring kick in Tenten's gut. She lost a grip on her weapon when Naruto followed up by kicking the insides of her elbows as well, and the axe-head's bottom corner dug into the back of the young Hokage's skull. It dragged down for a few inches from its own weight, stopping just short of falling out. The bone healed around it, leaving the metal trapped.

"Wash the spears with the blood of your enemies." Naruto said. "Dance with me, Tenten."

Tenten did unseal a spear, the steel length being just slightly shorter than her own height. Spinning it swiftly, her initial thrust was successful; it drove through the crease of Naruto's right arm. Her second pierced him through his right thigh, and then finally she drove the lance through his foot to keep him pinned.

"What do you think you're accomplishing?" She asked. "Why are you doing this?"

"You and I process our grief differently, but we both think I'm the one who caused Higurashi to die. If he hadn't come to rescue me, hadn't come to keep you safe? I could still be stuck in an underground basement, and you'd be dead."

"Stop saying that! I don't _care!_ "

"Our lives mattered more to him than his own did. Your grief matters more to me than my own trauma. Do you know how many times I was cut open, poisoned, burned? How many times my bones were broken to further Orochimaru's research on human mortality?"

He paused, Tenten's resolve fading.

"Two things kept me alive, _little sister._ The Kyuubi's regenerative power, and my own anger. Every time I'm cut, hit, stabbed...it's a reminder of my captivity. A reminder that I can't unmake myself from what I became in order to survive."

With an axe hanging from his skull, and a katana through his gut, he looked like he should have died a long time ago. Not once had he cried out in pain.

"We all deal with loss. That's a shinobi's life. But I'm not going to put up with this distance between us anymore." Naruto declared.

Tenten didn't stop him as he ripped the ugrosh from his head, or when he unsheathed the katana from his belly. Tearing the spear from his foot, and the earth, he let it drop down to the ground and turned away from his sister-figure.

With a _shunshin,_ he was gone, leaving nothing to Tenten's company but the demons in her mind.


	68. Fear, the Mind-Killer

**This chapter is a little short, but hey, that also means that you get it a bit sooner. The real reason is because I couldn't figure out what extra segment I wanted to put at the end, so I just kept dragging the final scene out for almost half of the chapter. Not bad, considering that I'm still winging this whole production in the wiggle room I haven't written myself out of yet.**

 **Next chapter, presumably, (unless I change my mind...) is the beginning of the culmination of the war between the Jinchuriki and the Akatsuki. Which marks this story as...most of the way done, I think? I don't know, but the end _is_ approaching. At an indeterminate pace.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. Noahendless: No, that's not the plan, but I guess you could say that something similar is the idea? I'm just toying with possibilities, but that specific one is out the window.**

 **2\. iamcompton: Thank you! I hope you enjoy this one just as much!**

 **3\. Ordo-Silver: Truthfully, it's more to showcase Naruto's receding humanity. As I believe I stated _somewhere_ in this fic's past, there's very few ways to kill a Jinchuriki "for certain," due to the fact that the Biju heal them. The easiest one is decapitation/lobotomy, but removing a vital organ would work just as well since they can only repair damage, not replace full organs. However, a cranial injury that severe...I'd definitely say it's much less, "Naruto can take this kind of abuse now," and much more, "this is just how much stronger Kurama's powers have gotten in the short time since Naruto's transformation began." **

**Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

The day had come, after more than a week, when the remnants of Kumogakure returned to Konoha's gates. Darui said nothing; he didn't need to speak. Naruto already knew what had happened. With them, though, came an army of Tetsu no Kuni's samurai. They'd been swayed with the pleading urgency of men and women who knew their deaths would come swiftly without help.

The swordmasters were well-trained, and highly specialized. Though their skills weren't as diverse as a shinobi's might be, they were just as competent, and Naruto appreciated that they'd come. Mifune, the mountain nation's commander in chief, had come to lead his men into battle.

"I am Mifune, the leader of the samurai. You are the Hokage?" He asked, taking in Naruto's appearance for the first time.

The seventeen-year-old's shaggy blond hair fell past his shoulders, dropping down to the bottom of his ribcage. The black short-sleeved shirt he wore exposed some of his scars, most prominently the ring around his left elbow where he'd severed his own arm in his first fight with Jiraiya. And yet, for all that, Mifune could hardly look away from the ominous red glow of Naruto's open eye sockets. It was a visage that would haunt him until the day he died.

"I am." Naruto replied. "Do I meet your expectations?"

"If a man lives, he can fight. Regardless of your scars, or your disabilities, you still have more fight left in you than most men have in their whole lives. I don't know what's driving you toward the battles before you, but you can count on the samurai of Tetsu no Kuni to help your cause."

"Your graciousness is noted, Mifune-dono."

"If I may, though, Hokage-dono...don't you think your guards are somewhat young? I realize that age has minor bearing on a ninja's ability, but..." Mifune trailed off, his eyes moving between Rei and Kouga as they looked back at him.

"Why am I not guarded by Anbu, or at least more senior ninja than my own children?" Naruto smirked. "Honestly, I'm not really into the idea of bodyguards in the first place. I'm supposed to be the strongest person in the village, so it doesn't make sense for me to be protected by people that aren't as strong as I am. But I can only get away with disregarding so many rules and regulations for my position, and this was one of the ones I couldn't get out of. Even if Rei and Kouga aren't guarding me, then two or more of the clan heads are nearby at all times."

Mifune let the question of the twins' paternity pass away from his mind.

"Ensuring that someone with a vested interest in your survival is present at all times. You think strategically, Hokage-dono."

"Caution is learned, and should never be overlooked in our line of work." Naruto countered the compliment. "My eyes remind me of that fact every day."

The meeting had stopped just short of torture for Rei and Kouga. Though they had recovered many of their memories thanks to the series of events in Orochimaru's base, they were still physically teenagers, with the minds of pre-teens. Though their doujutsu didn't show outwardly, their sight more than made up for Naruto's own blindness.

"I'll have rooms prepared for each of you." Naruto continued. "Please, make yourselves at ease."

* * *

Two weeks after Konoha's destruction provided a welcome sight for weary eyes, as Mei and almost the whole host of Kirigakure's ninja marched to Konoha's walls. At the Mizukage's side was Gaara...or, at least, someone who looked the same.

Hulasikali Wala gazed upon the sight of Konoha for the first time, but with eyes that had seen it years ago. He knew, but could not describe, the loss he felt inside; with a predator's jaw and inhuman eyes, he had fought in this place. He had fought to _kill_ this place. He had fought to _defend_ this place.

But _he_ was not _him_ anymore. The chakra of man had been bled from his system, leaving nothing but the a demon's youki to power his body and strengthen his blows. The infernal fire within did not burn him anymore, but he could still feel its unhallowed touch. But, one thing remained that kept him tethered to his former selves when Temari and Kankuro, then Naruto, approached him.

 **"It's good to see you."** He told them.

That crucial, "again," was absent from his speech, though he was the only one to take note of it.

"Naruto told me what he thought happened...I'm just glad you're safe." Temari said, her arms wrapping around her brother's demonic body in a fierce hug. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you."

 **"This is the way it was meant to be, Temari. I drank the water of life...I can see each road that we can walk. I know the golden path that we must take."**

"To beat Pein?" Naruto asked.

 **"To kill Antal Dara."** Hulasikali Wala answered. **"To free us from the wheel."**

Naruto's eyes widened.

"You have access to both of their memories? Not just Gaara's?"

 **"I do, brother. Struggler. Cursed child."** The desert demon's grin was wide and toothy, a prominent display of razor-tipped fangs that remembered blood they'd never spilled.

"I'm happy to see you all again." Mei said with a smile, breaking off the conversation between the demon and the Hokage. "Naruto...Tayuya. How are you? The last time I saw you both together was in Suna."

"I've been busy." Naruto waved his hands around, gesturing to the village. "Tired, too."

"He's been too tired for me." Tayuya pouted, wrapping her arms around Naruto to keep him in place. "Make him stop!"

"I can't do that, unfortunately. He's the leader, after all, isn't he? But I'm sure that there's _something_ you can do to...entice him." Mei smirked.

"As far as I'm concerned, I'm not really a leader. You, Gaara, Mifune and I are all on equal footing here. I'd even vouch for you to be in charge, Mei. I mean, I fought under your command once, and that didn't end too bad, right?"

"That was also a war focused on stealth." Mei countered. "Which you excelled at. But now, you're not a Chunin barely making a name for yourself. You're the Hokage. You have the only survivor of Iwagakure's destruction in your care, as well as the remnants of Kumogakure. I heard about the samurai who've placed themselves in your command as well. I'm not going to be the odd one out, who refuses to follow your lead."

"Well, I guess, if you feel that strongly about it..." Naruto relented.

His army was assembled in full, ready to march at a moment's notice. Every single death, from this moment forward, was on his hands. Was he prepared for that kind of responsibility? The weight on his shoulders, that would never leave? All for the sake of killing one man, and his dream for the future of the world?

"Gaki, for fuck's sake, don't stand there like a brat who doesn't know whether he's getting stabbed by the hay or the needle." Zabuza said, marching forward as he broke rank. "I didn't get my ass kicked by you, back in Nami, for this. Give us some orders!"

The dark look on Naruto's face made everyone wary, and Zabuza worried that he'd far overstepped his bounds, but the blond nodded after a moment.

"You're right. I know what I need to do. Everyone, spread the word...we'll be going on the move in two days, at dusk. We'll use the night to hide our movement."

All for the sake of killing one man's pain, and the twisted nightmare he wanted to bring to life, for the future of the world. Naruto hardened his heart, in that moment, from the kindness that he'd been known for throughout his life. Nagato had _had_ his chances. He'd made his choices. Why should anyone pity the violent dictator he'd made himself into? It didn't matter that they were family, bound by the blood of the same clan.

He would crush Pein with all the strength he possessed. It was the only thing he could do to show respect for the man Nagato had once been.

* * *

It was still early in the afternoon when Tayuya came home, originally intent on making something for dinner. But, compared to every other day since her return to Konoha's cratered form, something was different. Something was wrong. She hadn't seen Naruto since that morning, when Kiri's forces had arrived; neither had anyone else, which set off warning bells in her head due to the fact that Naruto was _always_ visible in the village. She'd come home, hoping to find that he'd just gotten tired.

She didn't expect him to have fallen onto the tile of their kitchen floor, with a kunai shoved almost all the way through his arm.

"Naruto!"

"Why won't it go away?" He asked. "I'm here. I tried to get rid of it by stabbing myself, but the Genjutsu won't go away. I can still feel the hands...the knives. I'm free, aren't I? You saved me! So why..."

Tayuya dropped to the ground, pulling the knife out of Naruto's arm and wrapping him in a hug. He wasn't being assaulted by a Genjutsu.

His own memories were doing this. During his captivity, something had broken inside of him. Orochimaru had said it correctly: it was her fault. If she'd just been able to fight, during the first reunion with her former master, then he wouldn't have done something like getting caught to let her escape.

"You're safe." She whispered. "I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you."

"I love you too, Tayuya-chan." The words were barely audible, and painful to hear. "I'm scared."

"Don't be, I'm here with you. You're safe now. I promise."

It hurt to lie like that. First came the hallucinations, and then the nightmares. The hallucinations didn't last long, but the nightmares would persist for years. It had been months since Tayuya last had one. Of course, Tayuya had been given almost three years of freedom to adjust to a life where she wasn't Orochimaru's slave.

Naruto hadn't even been free of the snake-summoner's clutches for a month.

When Tayuya kissed her boyfriend, it was less out of the love she felt, and more because she didn't want to say an even worse lie.

"It's going to be okay."

When he heard those words, as he looked up to her face, Naruto had never seen a more radiant figure. Never, in his life, had he been more aware of just how much he loved Tayuya.

The feeling of knives cutting through his flesh disappeared, gradually. It was replaced by the warmth of Tayuya's body, and her weight above him. The pressure of her body, holding him down, was different than the metal bindings that had kept him in place for three months.

That was when the realization came to him: Tayuya was his lodestone. Ever since she'd come into his life, she had been the only person that kept him grounded in reality. He'd returned the favor throughout their accompaniment of the other, waking up more than once beside the young woman as she shivered for every reason except the cold. His arms, his warmth, his voice, had kept her sane in the darkness of her mind.

Now, she was the only thing that stood between him and the creeping insanity that waited for his most vulnerable moments. Maybe that wasn't exactly true, but in his mind, she was what kept him safe.

She was what kept him _whole._

With a slow, painful ease, he lifted himself up from the ground. His breathing began to stabilize, a steady _in-out-in-out_ that had comforted Tayuya through far too many of her own terrors. She felt the scars beneath his shirt, a reminder that his pain was just as old and strong as hers; the Sanbi's words had been honest when it referred to Naruto as, 'the cursed child.' But, with terrifying clarity, she remembered her own moniker from the turtle demon:

The child of damnation.

 _ **"You are the herald of devastation, for yourself and others."**_

The words had haunted her ever since. She couldn't stand the implication that she was the cause of other people's suffering. She didn't want to believe that she would be the one to ruin all the happiness that she'd been given...but the proof of Isobu's name for her was in the scene she'd walked in on. Naruto's torture at Orochimaru's hands would follow him for the rest of his life.

"Better?" She asked, digging her forehead into the crook of her boyfriend's neck.

"Better." Naruto said the word with the grit of a man who didn't fully believe his own speech, but found it true enough to say aloud. His left arm wrapped around her ribs, while his right held onto the kitchen counter's edge.

"That's not the first time it's happened." There was no question in Tayuya's voice.

"After I was first blinded, without my chakra, I lost my sense of time and barely got any rest. I kept reliving the experiments he did, sometimes even when he was doing something else. I have no real idea of how long I was captive. You tell me it was eleven weeks, but it might as well have been a year, or more. I know that's nothing compared to growing up under his control, but..."

"'But,' nothing, piss-for-brains." Tayuya scoffed, breaking away from Naruto's grip. "You don't get to play the tough guy card and say that other people have it worse. I just found you on the ground with a kunai in your arm because you thought your hallucination was a Genjutsu you could dispel. You can admit that it fucked you up."

"He's still out there. We both know it." Naruto shuddered.

"Nagato killed him. I watched him die." Tayuya stated.

"There was no corpse. I refuse to believe he's dead until you show me a corpse. He is out there, and he's waiting. I don't know _why,_ and I don't know what he's waiting _for,_ but he's alive and plotting. I'm sure of it."

Naruto's faith in that truth wouldn't be shaken, no matter what Tayuya tried to convince him with. Before his time on earth had expired, he would end Orochimaru's life for good.

Only an everlasting death could be recompense for the pain he'd been dealt. Only vengeance could sate the bloodlust that rose inside him every time he thought about the years Tayuya had suffered in Otogakure.

"Come on." Naruto said. "Didn't Mei say something about, uh, enticing me?"

"Mm...fuck yeah, she did. Follow me, we've never gotten to celebrate getting you free. Everything kind of hit the fan all at once, so I bet you could use a _long_ break."

"Does this lead in the direction of where you've been trying to get me for almost three years?"

"It leads to that exact point, yeah." Tayuya smirked. "Don't tell me you're nervous, you big moron."

If Naruto had eyes, he would have rolled them.

"Oh, for fuck's sake."

"Well, that's the plan." Tayuya quipped. Who said that one-liners were only Naruto's humor? "Race you!"

Before she could take two steps, Naruto spoke again.

"Tayuya?" He asked.

"Yes, dear?"

"I'm fucking blind."

That didn't stop him from following her, though.


	69. The Great Wall Before Him

**It's been far, far too long. I'm sorry about the wait; several things happened in my personal life, and I was busy with work, and all other kinds of excuses I can come up with...all true. Doesn't change that this chapter should have been out weeks ago. Gave y'all a couple hundred extra words to make up for it, though. Maybe that helps?**

 **Hopefully it lives up to the wait. It's basically all dialogue, but it sets the stage for the movement next chapter.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. iamcompton: As always, your unending enthusiasm is noted and appreciated. Hope you enjoy this too!**

 **2\. Noahendless: Something along those lines sounds about like what I'm going for, yeah.**

 **3\. FlawlessMirage: Thanks for the compliment(s,) friend. I'm not sure I'm deserving of such lofty praise, but I'll take it and run, and use it as fuel for the next chapter.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"You know the truth, just as well as I do." Shikamaru said.

He'd been approached by Danzo, and now sat at a small table across from the elderly man in his underground base.

"Oh, there's no doubt in my mind that we're all marching to our deaths." Danzo confirmed. "But will you still follow, even knowing that? Will you die for your brother in arms, on his orders, at his whim? You and your father are all that remain of your clan, and I understand that struggle. I have no surviving sons, and they bore no children of their own before their deaths. And still, I will follow wherever the fire leads me."

"The odds aren't good. You have to know that much."

"Uzumaki Nagato has united Ame, and brought the defunct minor nations to his side through murder and intimidation. The blood of six nations is on his hands, and the people gathered in Konoha are all that stand to oppose him. There are ninja strong enough to bring him down, but the only one we're supposed to count on is crippled as much by his blindness as his bloodlust. And yet, I will follow him. I will trust in the leaves that have fallen, because I am one among the roots that give life to the great tree."

That wasn't entirely true, but Shikamaru didn't need to know that. There was a long list of reasons to explain why Danzo would march to Ame no Kuni's floodplains, but obedience to Naruto's will? That wasn't one of them.

"Will you do the same?" Danzo asked.

"Not like I have much choice. It's kind of do-or-die at the moment." Shikamaru admitted. "But you don't actually expect me to believe that someone like you is driven by _loyalty_ to Naruto, right?"

"I have always been a man of power, but I have not always been a powerful man. Whether or not you believe that I am content to retain the role I've held for so long, I will not deny that I've grown...comfortable in it."

"Just as long as you don't get _too_ placid." Shikamaru smirked, his body melding with the shadows around him as he vanished from Danzo's sight.

The elder ninja bridged his hands. He really needed to put more lights in his base.

* * *

 _He's coming._

Nagato knew what the looming storm looked like. It was six feet tall, blond, blind, and filled with more violence than the world had seen since before the birth of Ninshu. The challenge had been set, the stage was ready, and all he needed to do now was wait.

So he waited.

The minor countries and their ninja had either been broken, or brought beneath his banner, by show of force and strength of will. Though they had allied with different villages, each one knew that they were destined to live in the shadows of the Great Nations. Most had chosen to stand with Pein's Akatsuki, but one or two had elected to die in defense of an alliance that was effectively null and void.

That didn't bother Nagato. He held full faith that the Akatsuki could weather an assault from all his foes at once. The only thing that sat in the back of his mind, nagging at him, was his former subordinate.

He'd killed Orochimaru. Nagato was certain of that. The _Chibaku Tense_ i was nigh impenetrable, and the White Snake had been crushed by the stone sphere's internal pressure. So why did he feel like he was forgetting something?

He hadn't seen the body. After the battle with Orochimaru, he'd been forced to retreat by his exertion, and while he would have sworn that it was impossible to survive the _Chibaku Tensei,_ Orochimaru was known for his inhuman durability. If there were a way to survive, be it jutsu or strength or just plain endurance, Orochimaru would be the one to find it and use it.

Orochimaru almost worried him more than Naruto did. At least with his blond clansman, he had a vague idea of what waited for him; the Uzumaki were known for strength that defied logical explanation. But the last Sannin, if he was still alive, had gained that reputation without any clan background.

That was truly fearsome.

The rain came down in Amegakure, just the same as it always had. The soft _plit-plit-plit_ of the raindrops was lighter than usual that day, as Nagato saved his strength for the trials to come. Without Konan, without Yahiko, without Jiraiya...could he triumph, so alone in the world? He was beloved by the people of his nation, and feared throughout the world for his power. That did not mean he would succumb to hubris.

He would fight with the same strength he always showed in battle. To overextend was to invite death, and to be recalcitrant was the same as surrender. Pein, the god of the rain and the soul of the new world's dawn, was not ready to do either.

There was thunder in the sky.

* * *

The kunai in Naruto's hand was an anchor to reality. Driven through the flesh of his palm, its razored edge cut into his fingers whenever he flexed them near it. The Kyuubi's regenerative power kept the wound from healing, and his pain was a grounding wire. Though his mind could fool him into believing in things that weren't there, the indignant rage he felt at his twisted self-harm would keep him present.

Turning his energy inward, he let the agony fade as he stood before the Kyuubi. The languid dripping of water, from a broken sewer pipe, was comfortably familiar; it put him at ease as the sewage was tinted red with the blood from his palm.

"I've gone through a whole lot because of everything connected with you." He said. "What do you know?"

 **"You're sick."** The demon said, one eye opened slightly wider in interest that Naruto had materialized a weapon inside of the _Shiki Fuin._ **"And there isn't a cure. By all counts, you'd be voted unfit for duty and removed from the active roster."**

"Not about that! I know that. We're going to be fighting Pein, so tell me what you know about the Rinnegan."

 **"Those eyes are the only ones that irritate me more than the Sharingan, inside of this seal or out of it. Human legends say that it's the last gift that gods gave mankind before I killed them, but that's not entirely true. Those who fulfill certain roles in Antal Dara's sick play are considered blessed, even holy, by mortal standards. Their first wielder was the original Rei, your daughter. It was born from your own demonic essence, and the holy curse of Antal Dara, being thrust into a fully human form...but not all the results were so kind. You've seen what became of the original Kouga."**

Naruto thought back to the plant-man he'd fought in the ruins of Konoha, who'd called himself Zetsu. If he was remembering correctly, Rei was the progenitor of the Senju and Uchiha clans, while most of Kouga's lineage had died out. That meant he was the flytrap's descendant?

Naruto made himself turn away from that mental door. It would only provide more questions than answers.

 **"It has dominion over every realm of existence. Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Genjutsu, Kenjutsu, contract summoning, gravity, chakra, and even life itself. Anything in particular you want to know?"**

"Is there anything particular about Pein I should be aware of?"

 **"While you were fighting through Orochimaru's base, I was focused on the chakra around us. Pein, or at least I'm assuming it was Pein, seems to utilize a corpse puppetry technique so that there are multiple Rinnegan present, increasing his numbers while limiting the skills each body can use. But I'm more worried about his eyes in particular."**

"Why?" Naruto crossed his arms, kunai shifting in his palm as his right arm jerked the handle down.

Kurama didn't look away from Naruto's face.

 **"His eyes have a different chakra than the one circulating through the rest of his body. Someone else's chakra, who's been dead for a century."**

"Who?"

 **"Uchiha Madara. It bothers me, because it could potentially play into a terrible situation. If Pein somehow manages to activate Madara's chakra, he'll gain access to Madara's skills."**

"Including Zenton?" Naruto asked.

There was a stilled silence as the question hung there, and Kurama closed its eyes in pained admission.

 **"Yes."** The single word was accompanied by the sewer's dripping pipe, a single drop careening downward to ripple out in the calf-deep water. **"But I'm less concerned about Zenton than the possibility that he could turn you into a puppet. Madara's eyes were capable of enslaving me, so as my host..."**

"I'm naturally weak to them? Man, what a pain in the ass."

 **"You said it. Fortunately, we have some advantages over it. But...we'll worry about those later. First, you actually need to make it to Ame."**

Naruto's focus returned outward, the burning sensation of the knife in his hand coming back into focus.

 _Memento mori,_ as the saying went.

 _Remember, you will die._

He shuddered, blood shaking inside his body as a growl forced itself from his throat. Without any action of his own, the kunai flew away, returning to its original form as a clone before dispelling. Where it had been, a brutally vicious scar broke his skin with its deep crimson color.

In the back of his mind, Naruto knew that his actions only sped up the process of turning him into a demon. He'd been abusing the Kyuubi's healing factor as a way of compensating for the razored edge buried in his skin. The pain wasn't enjoyable, but it was proof that he existed in the moment. Proof that he wasn't lost in the past, in the dark, in the violent abuses that had been afflicted upon him.

If Orochimaru still lived, and the blond had no reason to believe that the White Snake was actually dead, then Naruto swore that he would kill him with his own two hands.

No jutsu, no seals or weapons. He would choke the life from the last living Sannin, and relish every moment of it.

He would kill Orochimaru. He would kill Pein. If Madara stood before him, that being who had become more monster than man, then Naruto would show the Uchiha's prodigal patriarch just what it meant to defy the will of gods and demons.

And then he'd kill Madara, too.

Fumbling with his chakra for the first time in years, Naruto lost the chakra-sensing sight that had kept him alert and alive so far.

Poison on the blade, strong enough to dilute even the Kyuubi's nigh-omnipotent chakra. He'd stolen some from Orochimaru's lair, and had been building up an immunity to it in the event that his fears came to pass.

They were all ninja here, after all, and you could never be too paranoid in that line of work. For all Naruto knew, ninja would be all that remained once the war was over and done with.

* * *

"Come on, come on, come on! He hasn't even told us how we'll be moving yet, how many groups he'll divide us into, or anything. C'mon, I wanna get going!" Kiba whined.

Kiba, Ino, Zabuza and Haku were all gathered in a private booth, the restaurant near to Konoha's former northern gate.

"Nagato knows we're coming. Why should we bother with stealth?" Ino countered. "Concealing our movement in smaller groups only increases the chances that we'd get picked off by random bandits, nukenin, or Akatsuki agents."

"I take it neither of you have ever been to Amegakure." Zabuza said, running a sharpener along the edge of his blade. It wasn't necessary, but the action had become a ritual for him; if you didn't take care of your sword, then your sword wouldn't protect you.

Ino and Kiba both shook their heads, a sign in the negative. They were so young, Zabuza had expected as much.

"Its walls are the highest of any hidden village, and thicker to boot. Half of its buildings are towers, reaching into the sky like they want to touch the land of gods...and it never, ever stops raining. It's a jutsu passed down by all the village's leaders, a perfect detection field that no level of stealth can get through. As long as the sun can't shine on the city, Nagato knows exactly where everyone in Ame is at all times. If we're going to get anything done in the fight that's coming, we'll need a way to take away the rain."

"Worst mission we ever went on." Haku said. "It was cold, and everybody was suspicious, and _this_ hair, in the rain?"

"It didn't help that the blonde was coming out of it, or that you were posing as my daughter."

"I beg your pardon, Zabuza-sama, but do you think they would have believed I was your son? I was ten years old, with a high voice and this face."

"I still have my doubts." Kiba laughed. "But if the village walls are that tall and tough, how are we going to get through them?"

Zabuza grinned beneath his tape, face visibly contorting under the mask.

"Let's leave that to our fearless leader and his furry friend."

The _Kirigakure no Oni_ had seen the power of more than one Biju first-hand, stronger than any man could ever hope to become on his own. He remembered the Sanbi's perfect transformation a year and a half ago, as well as the Ichibi.

He remembered Naruto calling down a meteor, and permanently altering the landscape by bringing a mountain up from the ground.

Ever since they'd first met in Nami no Kuni, the blond boy had scared Zabuza shitless. And he couldn't think of anyone he'd rather have on his side than Naruto, who was calling the shots.

The world was going to hell in a couple days; Zabuza was certain of that. He'd lived through war once before.

He just hoped that the kids around him all made it out alive, regardless of what happened to him.

* * *

The Sabaku siblings sat with Danzo, Mei, Mifune, Kurotsuchi, Darui, and Naruto around a circular table that night, each with their own guards; two Anbu, Kama and Towa, had been assigned to Kurotsuchi after she'd returned. Omoi and Karui stood behind Darui, and there were a pair of samurai behind Mifune. Sai stood slightly behind Danzo, and Ao was with Mei, while Karin, Juugo, and Suigetsu all surrounded Naruto.

"So," Naruto began, "what the hell are we going to do about Ame's walls?"

"Too thick for a windstorm or an explosion, too broad for brute force, too high to climb." Danzo replied. "It's certainly the most difficult hurdle in dealing with that city. In all these years of war, it's one of the only villages that's never suffered an invasion attempt. Its walls are the reason for that."

 **"Pein also has a detection field set up around the village. The rain itself acts as a remote chakra sensor, alerting him when foreigners enter the city."** Hulasikali Wala said, narrowing its eyes. **"To circumvent that, we'd need to either kill Pein outright or have a water demon infiltrate it. That's not something the Sanbi is capable of."**

"No...but it _is_ something I can do." Suigetsu offered up with a smirk.

 **"You can transform into water?"**

"Orochimaru experimented on me so much, it's not transforming. I'm amorphous, and this body is held together through pure willpower. If I go into the rain, my chakra can jam that shit up...no idea how long it'd last, though."

 **"You would die in minutes, possibly less. The only energy that can fully counter Pein's Rinnegan is the full youki of a demon, or the divine energy of a god."**

"We'll think of something later." Naruto said. The Kyuubi, no doubt, had already started making plans.

"My Yoton and Futton could eat through the walls, but not quickly enough to be useful." Mei said. "Really, what I think we need is someone to go over the wall and unlock it from the other side."

"Too dangerous!" Mifune countered. "That's a suicide mission for whoever attempts it. Assuming they get inside in the first place, there's no guarantee they'd be able to force the gates open long enough for our people to get through."

"Last option, I guess, is for me and the other Jinchuriki to just blow a hole through it with Bijudama." Naruto said. "But access to our demons is limited at best, and those attacks take up a decent amount of demonic strength. Either way, if that's our option, then I'm game."

"We'll want to conserve the Biju. Pein has five of them at his disposal, in some way, and I'm not excited to know how." Danzo said.

"So, in conclusion, we have two really big things that need to be dealt with...and no solid way to do either. Wonderful." Ao said miserably.

"Well, we're leaving tomorrow. I'd suggest everybody get as much sleep as they can, since we'll be pushing hard to put as much ground behind us as possible." Naruto said. "Guess I'll need to finalize a plan on the way there."

The assembled people rose and left the room, until Naruto and the Sound Three were the only ones left.

"I'm going to do it." Suigetsu declared. "But if Gaara was right, then I'm going to need your help. Or, I guess, the Kyuubi's help."

"There's no going back from that." Naruto warned. "You have a day or two, think it over."

"Don't need a day or two. I spent my life chasing after my brother's shadow, then stuck in a lab getting tortured into being...this. I'm already inhuman, what do I really have to lose? Worst-case scenario, I'm with my family again. Best-case scenario, we get the tool we need to check one of Pein's aces. I followed you out of that hellhole for self-serving reasons, but nothing I've done would make people consider me an honorable swordsman. Might as well pay you back for giving me my freedom."

With that, Suigetsu evaporated.

"Bastard." Karin said, shaking her head as she walked out.

Juugo just closed his eyes, a solemn and silent prayer for his teammate running through his head. Soon enough, he left as well. Naruto was, once again, alone in the shadow that blanketed his blindness. Without hesitating, he reached into his leg-holster and rammed two kunai through his own arm.

The metal's bite would keep him keep him sharp and strong.


	70. I Tell You, We Are Doomed, My Friend

**Great googly moogly. I'm sorry this took so long; there's been a lot of interpersonal drama going on in my life. Christmas Eve, my girlfriend of 3.5 years admitted to cheating on me for 2.5 of those years. However, the real blowout didn't start until about a month after, (which is to say, about a month ago,) and I didn't have time to write...'cause I was serving that bitch (and the public) almost 4 years' worth of receipts on her ass.**

 **I mean, I scored with identical twins on the rebound, and I feel better now than I have in the last 3 years or so. It ain't all bad. Still, that's why I've inadvertently left yall hanging. My bad.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. iamcompton: Well, it definitely didn't come quickly. My bad, buddy; hopefully I'll get the next one out sooner.**

 **2\. dustin ky: Yeah, the story has gotten a lot more...expansive...than I originally intended. That's one of the problems with writing a, "come up with it as you go along," kind of story. In an attempt to keep as much originality as possible, sometimes your plot's sensibility takes a bizarre nosedive. Here's how it works.**

 **Age of Gods (circa "a long time ago") the Naruto from a destroyed timeline is the Juubi, the Rei and Kouga from another timeline are the Sage of Six Paths and her younger brother. Naruto sacrifices his life to destroy heaven, the Kyuubi hunts the gods down and kills them one by one. Rei's sons are the Senju and Uchiha ancestors. Kouga, having not received the Rinnegan, becomes a demon/human hybrid towards the end of his natural lifespan and renames himself Zetsu. His notable descendants are the Jie and Uzumaki clans.**

 **Warring Clans Era (85-90...ish? years prior to this fic's start) the Uzumaki Naruto from a _second_ destroyed timeline is the head of the Uzumaki clan. His children, Rei and Kouga, are trapped within a liminal space between worlds...the blue ball used by the last living god to transport people between time and space. Naruto dies in battle, the Kyuubi is released and eventually falls under Madara's control. (NOTE: in this unwritten universe, Naruto is the son of Nagato and the husband of Karin. I hinted at that a few times, but it's probably best to state it directly.)**

 **This Fic (circa "now") Rei and Kouga are released from the labyrinthine liminal space by their "father" in his native timeline. Gaara fuses with Shukaku in order to escape captivity/prevent the Ichibi from falling into Pein's hands. There is a deific pantheon for each timeline, not one set ruling over all worlds at all times. Zetsu makes his relevant reappearance. War is coming.**

 **War is here.**

 **3\. draco7347: I'm glad! Here's a new one for you.**

 **The end is nigh, but not here yet...let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

Naruto's thoughts drifted to Jiraiya as Konoha and its allies marched toward Amegakure. A member of each generation he'd mentored would be at the battle.

Pein, once known as Nagato. One of Uzushio's two remaining survivors, the last remnant of Jiraiya's original students, the wielder of the Rinnegan. Shizune, who'd been on Jiraiya's official Genin team with Naruto's parents before she became Tsunade's apprentice; she had outlived both of her teachers, and both of her teammates. Naruto and Tayuya would be present as well, of course. The two Jinchuriki, one decidedly more human than the other, were the Sannin's last pupils.

Idly, Naruto's train of thought shifted from one deceased sensei to the other. Kakashi's final moments had been hardwired into Naruto's brain, the _Issenjutsu no Meijin's_ selfless sacrifice made without a second thought. There was no doubt in Naruto's mind that Konan's all-obliterating attack would have managed to kill him, despite his demonic taint and inhuman resilience. Kakashi could have escaped. That was an undeniable idea, given the breadth of the former Anbu's repertoire. But, when given the choice to save himself or protect Naruto...he'd chosen to die.

His teachers had been legends in their own right, and _their_ teachers were practically considered gods among men. While Naruto was sure that he'd already matched or exceeded the expectations put forth on him, he knew that he didn't want to let them down. Beyond the realm of his vanished sight, outside the scope of his mind's wanderous rambling, Ame's great wall loomed ahead.

Naruto hadn't made his troops cut a winding path through the land that distanced them from their target. The route they traveled was a straight line, cutting through all the wilderness that sat between Konoha and Amegakure. Eventually, when the day was almost done, they broke through the forests that extended past Hi no Kuni and had arrived at the floodplains of Ame no Kuni.

"We should go for another fifteen minutes, then stop for the night." Danzo advised. "That will put us out of sight of Ame, and out of Pein's detection field, but close enough that we could cast a jutsu at the walls and hit it."

"Is it out of range of any and all sensors?" Naruto asked.

"Only if they have someone whose sensory range and power exceeds our oinin friends from Kiri, or the Hyuuga."

"I won't risk it. If Pein gets any sort of inkling that we're here in the night, it would be child's play to massacre us and retreat. I'd rather be a little further away, and safe for the night."

Mei nodded, glancing to the Hokage appreciatively. Every instinct in her body, from the civil war she'd led and fought, told her that it was the smarter move. Push your body, push your mind, push your chakra to its limits...but never push your luck.

"I'll spread the word to stop." She declared, slowing down and moving back through the ranks of their army. The tall grass hampered movement slightly, well-fed from the rain that the sky gave freely here.

"I doubt the risk is so severe, but I will cede to your wish, Hokage-sama." Danzo said, the words carrying a hidden edge that Naruto could still pick out.

"At this stage, any risk is too severe. It's a fact of war that we'll have casualties, but there's no reason to incur any more than absolutely necessary."

With his uncovered eye, Danzo watched the young Hokage go in a different direction. It was an apt metaphor, he mused, for the paths that they would take in life.

The world would sing a funeral dirge with its dying breaths, an ode to power that was far greater than Danzo could deny.

* * *

Plenty of older ninja sat around the seal-based flames that dotted their camp. The chakra-born flames produced mild heat, and no smoke, preventing any shift in the wind from starting a wildfire or causing the smoke to alert Ame's guard of their location. The company they allowed came from all walks of life, the village remnants mixing rather than staying among their own.

Those who were old enough to live through the Third Great War, and a handful that had survived since the Second Great War, shared their stories.

"I was there at the battle of Revan's Pass." One of the older ninja from Kumo claimed, an aging man who looked nearer to sixty than fifty. "Kiri, Iwa and Kumo all on one battlefield, and moving through those mountain crags was worse from all the blood...I was sixteen years old, then. Never would have thought that any of our villages would work together after that, or that we'd be reduced to this state."

It wasn't a battle taught in Konoha's military history, but Revan's Pass had played host to a two-week theater during the Second Great War that saw hundreds of ninja on all sides die without warning.

"My father fought at Revan's Pass. He always said it was the worst, bloodiest battlefield he'd ever seen." A kunoichi from Kiri said.

"Your father was right. Seven out of ten people on the front line died every day, and not all from combat. Blood made the ground so slick, it was easy to slip and fall off one of the cliffs, or slam into one of the razor-sharp rocks."

"Mount Tenka, in Kusa no Kuni, was the battle in the third war that scared me the most." Shikaku Nara offered his own story. "Konoha and Suna forces were holding out for reinforcements when we were attacked. It was a struggle, but we managed to hold them off...two platoons were all that survived."

This was the way of ninja; they knew that some of them, perhaps all of them, would be dead by tomorrow night. To honor the dead, and to tell the stories of the time they'd spent living, was the only way to keep their memory strong in the event that they passed.

"The invasion of Konoha, two years ago, was the first time I killed a man." Shikamaru said, standing by his father's seat with a weight to his gaze as he remembered the battle. "I was thirteen years old, and nine Oto Jonin were hunting my teammates and I down. Naruto turned out to be the star of the day, he beat Suna's Jinchuriki unconscious with his bare hands, but someone had to stay behind to make sure that he had the time to get to Gaara in the first place. I managed to get eight of them, and my sensei showed up to save me from the ninth, but not before..."

The Nara rolled up his shirt, revealing a scar on the side of his abdomen that cut downward and nearly reached his spine. There were a few whistles, and mutters of applause, at the broad mark.

"Took out eight of Orochimaru's Jonin at thirteen? Boy, you're somethin' scary. I'm almost glad things have played out this way, because there's no way I'd want to face you!" A Kumo ninja complimented him.

"Not just that, but he drops Naruto's name like it's nothing! Like he's just been taking out the Hokage's trash since they were still in the academy." A Konoha ninja, who Shikamaru didn't know, spoke up.

"Hey, the job comes with some perks. If I tell him that he's being stupid, he believes me and stops what he's doing. The only other person who gets that kind of treatment is Tayuya." Shikamaru said.

"So what you're sayin' is, you're the Hokage's second wife." The second Kumo-nin said with a laugh.

Shikamaru closed his eyes with a silent prayer. He knew from experience that his night wasn't going to improve from this point on.

* * *

 **"If it were my choice, you would stay behind in safety."** Hulasikali Wala said.

"Well, it's not your choice. Whether you like it or not, I will be leading my friends and subordinates into battle. Your job has never been to fight for me, my little koi fish...only to support me, as I would hope to support you. Do that, for me. Please?" Mei answered. "I know you're not Gaara, but the heart that beat for him is inside you. The memories he held are inside you."

 **"As are his thoughts and feelings, and those have not changed. There is a reason the mark on my head has taken this shape.."** The desert demon added.

It was the symbol for "love," and it was a liberating piece of evidence for Mei to see and remember. Hulasikali Wala took her hand in his own, raising it to his lips and dusting her knuckles with a kiss. He had seen what was to be, on every path that mattered, and it frightened him.

When one was prescient, it was a difficult thing to avoid attempts at changing the future. Most often, the only thing that happened was relegation to a sub-optimal path. But Hulasikali Wala had great difficulty in balancing the necessity of non-interference with his once-human feelings.

What was to come, let it be done. It was a bad idea to interfere with the slowly-blossoming future, but the desert demon didn't know if he could resist when their success was so heavily correlated to Mei's survival. What frightened him more, however, was the fact that he had seen every possible way she could die in the upcoming battle.

The Oathbreaker was nearby, in the folds of time and space, and yet he seemed so far away. The dark laugh that had haunted Shukaku's dreams for nearly a century was reverberating in the city of Amegakure.

He didn't know what to do. He didn't know what he _could_ do. There were so few options available to him, but so many possible outcomes...

 _This is what it means to walk upon the Golden Path. To guide mankind in such a way that they avoid their destruction is just another means of embracing your own._

Hulasikali Wala didn't know the voice that came to him, or how he understood it, from the tremors in the ground. The realization didn't take long to arrive, however: there was a worm, deep below the surface, waiting on his command. With that knowledge, he had the answer he needed.

 _ **And what does the Golden Path say of your kind, Shai-Hulud?**_ He asked it.

 _We are the remnants of an age which mankind must not remember. We are the children of a Maker far beyond the scope of your frail gods. Death will come for the worms of the desert, or death will come for man._

The notion left Hulasikali Wala shaken. The sandworms had lived in the desert since time immemorial, before the gods had been born. Before the world of demons had come to intersect with the world of men.

The heart of a man still beat inside his demonic chest.

An age of extinction was coming.

* * *

"It's time." Naruto mumbled, his arm around Tayuya's waist while they stood before the armies of those who'd escaped Pein's wrath.

Appreciatively, she squeezed his hand. Sasuke and Neji were behind them, the elite old guard of Konoha's forces standing with their Hokage.

"It's time!" He said, louder with the repetition. "We end this today!"

Some of those assembled began to nod, grim expressions not void of hope for the coming day.

"We've suffered too much at Pein's hands, let him run rampant for too long! One way or another, by the time the sun falls, we'll be free of him! When those walls fall, rush in, and break their resistance! And when the Akatsuki comes..." The cruel, curving grin of Naruto's fangs was as sinister a look as could come to the blond. "...kill them with pride! For all those we've lost at their hands, and for all that we stand to lose if Pein keeps his power, we have to bring him down!"

There was a short, manic cheer that ran through the crowd in front of him. Then, with little fanfare, it died; why would they delay battle any further? With war in their hearts, they moved as one, passing through the floodplains surrounding Amegakure like the shadows of a ghost on a moonlit lake. Soon, they stood before Amegakure's mighty walls, and they waited.

"Suigetsu." Naruto called the swordsman's name out, and the last of the Hozuki moved to stand before him. "You're certain that this is the path you want to take? Last chance to back out."

"Hit me with everything you've got, you son of a bitch." Suigetsu grinned as he watched Naruto go through the hand signs for the deadliest Raiton technique ever made.

The rain came down, though only the amorphous Kenjutsu master was touched by it; to the shock and dismay of several onlookers, Naruto's right hand glowed with blue, then red, and then finally yellow chakra. The result was a pure, white radiance that almost seemed like godly fire. This was no mere _Chidori._

"You are the storm demon. The monster of the rain." Naruto said. "Blood will not come from your passing, but in your rebirth. Fortunate sons are they who receive the rain, and this lightning will be your holy blade."

With the boom of a thunderclap, Suigetsu lost all form when the white-hot _Raikiri_ pierced his liquid flesh, ascending into the sky with one instantaneous vaporization. The scream he uttered was inhuman, though masked by the overpowering roar of rolling thunder...and soon, gradually, the rain no longer fell. The sky remained dark, storm-clouds overhead foreshadowing the grief that would befall the world at the day's end. A white-hot bolt of lightning struck the earth mere feet ahead of where Naruto stood, and the rain picked up again.

He could feel Suigetsu's heartbeat in the clouds above, the Kiri-nin's newfound demonic presence unavoidable to Naruto's senses.

 **"Shai-Hulud will show us our path."** Hulasikali Wala declared.

 _I light the way for he who walks the Golden Path. No more, no less...Shukaku. Gaara. In this age of gods and demons, may the legacy of my kind be the strength you hold within your heart._

The world below shook, a terrible roar emanating from the ground below them as an ancient desert-maker rose from the depths which it had carved out for more than a thousand years. The sandworm burst through the ground with a deafening cry, burning-hot sand melting into a rain of molten glass as it thrashed for a moment in the sky before descending. Its tail swiped inward, and the southern quarter of Amegakure's great wall caved backwards on the city as it crumbled and melted from the sandworm's heat.

 **"In case anyone missed it: that's our path."**

His arm still burning with white lightning, Naruto was the first to run headlong into battle...into chaos. His war-cry echoed against the corners of the world, a challenge to the dead gods and a man who stood as their final prophet.

Crows were waiting in the sky, hungry for the carcasses that would wait for them at the day's end. Crows were hungry in the sky, waiting for the Hokage they served to give them a signal that he didn't know.

The Kinslayer wouldn't need to wait for long.

* * *

To Pein, the bellowed rage of the sandworm had been the second clue that something was wrong. The first had been the interruption of his detection technique, followed by its severance and replacement. But how?

No. _How_ was unimportant. The real question was _who._ There was nobody on earth that Pein had heard of with the capability of performing that technique, or disrupting it; the Akatsuki's network of spies was as large as any hidden village's, if not moreso. He would have known if there was someone capable of eliminating his defense systems.

"Wipe them out." His blanket order to the Akatsuki's remaining members left his lips with cold efficiency. With a small, ironic wistfulness, Pein wished that Hidan was still alive-he would have made short work of the invading army.

He hadn't seen their size, hadn't felt their approach, but he knew; the remnants of the world were marching against him, his own clansman at their head. The fate of the Uzumaki would be the same as the fate of the world, and whichever of them was left standing would be the one to lead humanity into a new age.

The hands of a god would crush all those who sought to rise against Pein's will.

With calm, prideful steps, he walked forward. The Rikudo Pein moved in his city's streets, puppets ready to spill blood on his command. They would get their chance, sooner rather than later. There was no "later," anymore. This was the end. A new beginning would follow afterwards, but to all things there was a season.

Pein would drown the young Hokage's hopes with blood and iron. An unfortunate consequence that couldn't be helped, he told himself.

The boy, not even a legal adult by civilian standards, and far from a full-grown man, had known plenty of suffering in his seventeen years of life. He had been cursed, spat on, attacked, degraded, scarred, tortured, and likely more that Pein wasn't privy to. He had remained resolute throughout it all, a model of endurance for ninja old and young alike.

That everlasting spirit, Nagato determined, would die today.


	71. The Final Battle, I

**This took...way...too long. Most of you guys probably know how it is; life gets in the way. I have tried + failed to find new jobs/housing, my car broke down, and every other adult excuse you can come up with is probably also valid. However, I'm also pretty sure that this is not the longest you guys have waited for an update, so we're not allowed to complain yet.**

 **Great googly moogly.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. Fromaster: Hopefully this kind of chaos lives up to what you were expecting. And I personally wanted to keep extending the war stories portion, but I was worried that keeping it going for too long would just get boring. Fortunately, Shikamaru's first up in the order of this chapter's sections. Enjoy!**

 **2\. iamcompton: Oh, don't worry, I've found a _few_ girls who're better. I figured, "eh, why not play the game?" Lo and behold, I'm a definite player. Hope you like this chapter!**

 **3\. beast man1500: Thanks for the compliment, man. Hope this update is close enough to "soon," oops...**

 **Previously on Dragon Ball Z, our band of fearless heroes invaded Ame no Kuni for the final battle of the Fourth Great War. The end has begun.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"It might serve you a little better to keep your eyes on your opponent." Shikamaru said with a confidence he couldn't truly believe in, his kunai having drawn a bloody mark into the masked Akatsuki member's left arm.

The man before him was adorned in the Akatsuki's signature cloak, its red clouds on a black background standing out amid the green and grey of multinational flak jackets.

"I recognize that hairstyle...Nara. Did it hurt when Konan's bombs ripped your village to pieces? Zetsu told us all about it."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. "You know who you're fighting, but you give me all this time to work?"

The _Kagemane no Jutsu_ was successful, stopping Kakuzu in his tracks, but the ancient Taki-nukenin had abilities that not even Shikamaru's shadows could touch. Wordlessly, four masks separated from his back.

 _Raiton: Gian._

Dark lightning flowed from one mask, forcing Shikamaru to sever his _Kagemane_ in order to keep his life.

"Time isn't your ally, boy. It's mine."

Shikamaru groaned. Of _course_ the S-ranked ninja would have some kind of bullshit puppeteering technique that let him remote-control chakra constructs and break away from the Nara clan's bread-and-butter techniques. Nothing could ever go his way. No...that wasn't true. As long as he was never near the ocean again, after what happened with Zabuza, he could say that his life was a success.

He had to make it through today first, though.

"What a drag."

There was one gigantic advantage that Shikamaru still held, though; thanks to the thunderclouds that nearly blotted out the sun, his shadow could reach almost anywhere on the battlefield. His strikes could come from anywhere, at any time, with...

That was it.

* * *

Deidara felt a searing-hot presence behind him, one that almost reminded the blond bomber of his dead mentor.

"Kuro-chan...not very nice of you. When are you going to drop this game of pretend cat-and-mouse?"

"We're all that's left, Deidara-nii. You and I are all that Iwa has." The brunette said with a fierce intensity to her words.

"You're not listening to the words coming out of your mouth." Deidara still hadn't turned around. "I'm all that _you_ have...not the other way around. I have my art, if nothing else."

A low mechanical whir, unheard by anyone but Deidara himself, was all the indication of his monocled scope extending.

"What are you saying?"

"Stop chasing me. Stop trying to get close to me. The next time you see my face, if there _is_ a next time, you need to come to me as an enemy."

Though more than one of the invading army tried to attack Deidara, he sent small clay birds out; with little fanfare, they exploded, taking a handful of shinobi with them. A larger bird came from his palms next, and he rose into the sky, where far fewer people could fight him. He was far from capable as a strategist, but even from this high, he could tell who his enemies were.

He could also tell that he wasn't the only airborne ninja on this battlefield. Across from him, on a bird made of ink to the south, was an unnaturally white-skinned boy wearing Konoha's headband. Their opening salvos matched one another, small twin birds that collided and whose chakra exploded strongly enough that some of the ink splattered in a short diagonal line across Deidara's face.

"A fellow artist, huh?"

"You are Deidara, yes?" Sai asked. "Your technique is one of impression, designed to leave a lasting impact. Your partner, Sasori, is more of a traditionalist, saying that art is meant to be admired for eternity."

"And you?" The blond man raised an eyebrow.

"My medium is ink, the perfect middle ground between you both. Capable of lasting forever...and a single written word can change the course of history."

Deidara's visible eye widened with excitement.

"Come on, then!" He shouted. "Show me that your art is worth my time!"

A snake slung itself from the pages of Sai's scroll, split in half by a shuriken and reforming afterwards. Wrapping around Deidara's left arm, it bit the tongue on his palm before being thrown off to splatter on the ground beneath them. Deidara hissed in pain, feeling a mild poison burn though his blood, and quietly thanked his partnership with Sasori for giving him the chance to immunize himself to most poisons. He'd be down to one arm for a couple minutes, but in a ranged battle like this, it would hopefully prove meaningless.

Then he saw his opponent's face.

Sai's canines were now longer than any human's teeth had a right to be, thin and razor-pointed...serpentine, as his father before him. The expression on his face, too, was eerily reminiscent of Orochimaru; his eyes wide and unmoving, lips parted and jaw set in a maddening smile that betrayed nothing but insanity.

He was no Jinchuriki. He was not an Uchiha, not prone to the battle-madness that plagued his distant cousins. But he was Senju, and an eighth Uzumaki, both famous for their prowess in war. And he was the son of the White Snake.

Sai's laughter was manic, fearsome, and mortifying, all at once. He was one among the roots of the great tree, untouched by the light. For his brother, his captain, his king, he would gladly fight until the day he left this wretched earth. He would be the Hokage's sai, the sword-breaker that defiled the intentions of Naruto's enemies. Naruto was the Hokage, after all, whose fire would burn until nothing was left...but Sai was that fire's shadow.

A monster was born.

* * *

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Naruto shouted, and Gamabunta appeared on the battlefield with the blond on his head.

 **"Brat...you'd better have a good reason for this. I was right about to sit down for some sake."**

"It's the final war, Boss." Naruto grinned. "And they've got the Rinnegan. I swear, once this is all over, you and I are gonna sit down and drain a whole keg together...but we gotta win."

The Kyuubi was drawing in natural energy and converting it to Senjutsu chakra, filtered into Naruto's tenketsu network with the same fluidity that its youki maintained.

 **"Jiraiya and your pops said the same thing. I hope you're right, this time."**

"One of the Rinnegan's powers is to summon animals. You, and however many other toads you can pull, need to deal with those." Naruto said, lifting his falx from his back and holding it low in one hand as he released its seal.

 **"Whatever you say, boy."**

Almost as if on cue, a giant rhino bearing the Rinnegan charged through the street towards them. Naruto jumped from Gamabunta's head, and when he landed on the ground, six bodies with matching features stood against him.

"Coward." Naruto growled. "Don't hide behind these puppets! Face me!"

"In another time and place, in another life, you were my son. That is neither here, nor now. Go in peace, and die knowing that it will bring everlasting light to the world of man."

The red of Kurama's youki mixed with Senjutsu's yellow, cloaking Naruto in an orange miasma that was deadly to the touch.

"Kiss my ass, you ginger son of a bitch."

Behind him, Gamaken had been summoned to pin down a gigantic two-headed dog.

"Eyesight to the blind." Pein declared. "You lost your eyes, and view the world through clouded glasses. Pain will teach you the truth of this life."

"You think pain can change me? That _you_ can bring me down?" Naruto scoffed. "Nothing you do can match my strength, Nagato. Once these walking corpses are dead, I'll raze this city to the ground and split your head in half."

"Strong words." Pein replied.

 _Fuin: Bansho Ten'in._

Naruto activated the seal, pulling one of the Rikudo Pein forward and cutting it diagonally down the middle with a single swing of his falx.

"You traded our clan's heritage, our seals, our _lifeblood,_ for a power that was never yours to begin with. As the head of the Uzumaki clan, that's not something I can overlook."

Four redheads walked forward, separated from the masses that fought on a far battleground. Lightning touched the earth as Nagato, though the eyes of Pein, came face-to-face with the ghosts of his past.

"The crimes of a clan member will be dealt with by the clan." Uzumaki Oboro declared.

"We'll stop you, here and now." Kouga said determinedly.

"It ends here, grandfather." Rei added.

Tayuya stayed silent, staring forward. Four against five, with the Gakidou Pein laying in two pieces at Naruto's feet and another standing further behind the other paths.

There would be no shelter here.

* * *

"You know, on a battlefield this big...who'd have thought I'd find the one ninja I specifically set out to go up against?"

"You...the Yondaime's boy. A puppeteer. I'm sure that old witch had plenty of talent to work with."

Kankuro stared down the armored shell of _Hiruko_ , as Sasori rested inside it.

"It's a bloody profession, boy. Is that Karasu on your back?"

"One of many, and far from the most advanced." The middle Sabaku sibling admitted. "But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't sentimental about keeping it around."

"Nostalgic. You remind me of myself at your age...Karasu was the first puppet I created specifically for battle. Come on, then, young puppeteer...show me what you are."

 _Hiruko's_ tail launched forward, its poisoned blade-tip coming for Kankuro's throat. In moments, Kankuro's three most-used puppets were wielded to block the deadly blow.

 _Karasu_ , _Sanshouou_ , and _Kuroari_ flew toward Sasori, but _Hiruko's_ armor and tail-blade were too well-suited to defending against the attacks Kankuro could use.

"You're not on my level, boy. Just from that first exchange...you know it too."

"Good thing I don't need to try fighting you alone, then." Kankuro smirked as a green-clad body came down. Rock Lee's guillotine of a leg drop tore _Hiruko's_ tail to shreds, and snapped the puppet's carapace in half. The _Konoha no_ _Midori Kemono_ sprung away from the broken exoskeleton in wariness of his opponent.

"Yosh! Our flames of youth burn brightly, Kankuro-kun!"

There was a brief pause from both puppeteers.

"You _had_ to open your mouth..." Kankuro muttered under his breath.

The worst shock was still to come for Rasa's middle child, however. From the rubble that had once been _Hiruko,_ Sasori stood.

Or at least, a long time ago, it had once been a man who went by that name. Standing before them was an autonomous puppet that had cast off the shell of death.

"What the...what kind of monster _are_ you?"

"The kind your father never sent Anbu to capture. The kind he prayed would never come to haunt his lonely world."

Art's beauty was in its eternity, its ability to be admired for generations after its maker had faded into death and obscurity. The human body was an imperfect vessel for an artisan like Sasori.

He had created his own perfection.

* * *

"Do you have any idea how long I've waited for this?" Zabuza asked. "How long you _kept_ me waiting for this? Even for you, Kisame, that's just cruel."

"You're an assassin. If the job was easy, it wouldn't be fun, right? We're both killers, Zabuza. The chase is better than the catch."

This was the way it had always been for them, a phase of posturing that would go on before they started their battle.

"We always did back different horses. You with the Yondaime, me with Mei...you with Pein, me with the Hokage."

"All a matter of contrarianism. You and I, we were destined to oppose one another." Kisame said. "The day you graduated from the academy, and we crossed swords for the first time, I knew."

"Awful prophetic of you. Now, say...you think we should get on with it? I could always just start singing instead...dunno what, but you know me. A lyrical genius if you ever met one."

"I will gut you with a rusty spoon if even come _close_ to a tremolo."

"Why does nobody appreciate my vocal talents?" Zabuza whined. "You know you love my renditions of 'My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean.'"

"That song was designed for a chorus of people who had no musical talent, and you still manage to make it sound awful."

"At least I don't look like I belong in a soup."

"No," Kisame began his verbal counter, "but you still belong in a freakshow."

"It's not nice to insult someone just because you're jealous of how much stronger they are than you."

"Keep talking shit, you ass..."

Both men crouched, hands rising to the hilts of their swords. It was time to get serious. Each got two steps in as they lunged, zanbatou clashing against one another. They had other skills that they could use, but those were irrelevant, as were all other combatants in the city around them. This battle between them, one that had lasted for more than a decade, would be settled today by nothing more than the brute strength of their sword arms and the raw force of their chakra.

Two _yaksha,_ war demons, contained in the bodies of men who had dedicated their lives to the art of blade-work. The last two in their generation of masters who still drew breath, the strongest pair from any group of the Seven Swordsmen in history...and at the very least, one of them would leave the field in death. That was the way they lived their lives.

There was no need to measure their strokes, to take some sort of caution in their battle; they'd fought against one another, on and off, for nearly twenty years. Every swing had been calculated long in advance, each cacophonous crash of blades predicted and unchangeable. Though Kisame was stronger, and had a far larger store of chakra than Zabuza, the _Kirigakure no Oni_ was faster, and used far less.

They watched allies and enemies fall around them. They paid the loss of life no mind; this was war. Bloody, unforgiving, and incapable of stopping until one side had been declared the victor.

This was what they lived for. Zabuza's nostrils flared, and Kisame took a deep breath, before they separated in preparation for another clash.

Then the kid gloves came off.

* * *

Blood was on Neji's hands. The young clan head, once an arrogant rebel, had measured his violence and scaled it for the battle at hand. Though he and his cousins were not the last of the Hyuuga, few remained, and all were nearby. An archaic _Jyuuken Rendan_ did its work as Neji unleashed it, pummeling his enemy's guts into a quick and brutal organ failure. A fortune's worth of information, generations of practiced and improved techniques, had been lost when Konan obliterated Konoha...but enough was still known that Neji and his cousins had improved their capabilities in the time between Naruto's rescue and their current assault on Ame.

A palm thrust went forward, and he felt his victim's heart go still.

Not the first. Not the last. He moved forward, a wraith on this battlefield. Lacking the cage that had defined his life for so many years, Neji tried to deny that he was growing more addicted to war. He told himself that it was beneath him to _enjoy_ engagement in battle, that fighting was simply something to be done when necessary.

And yet, on the rain-soaked streets of Amegakure, he was free to spread his wings and fly. That was a powerful feeling.

It gave the young clan head some insight into Naruto's own battle-lust; in the thick of the fighting, there was nothing involved in life except the enemy before you. All pretense, all masks, gave way to the true self that was only shown when someone was risking their life.

Two fingers tapped into the chest of a man who hadn't realized he was a corpse yet. The chakra inside of him twisted, lungs and heart ripping before Neji grinned. The small explosion took the shape of a lance, cutting its way into the throat of the unfortunate Ame-nin behind his deceased comrade.

There was something a little too easily enjoyable about the instant of a murder. Of course, he wasn't the one who'd been raised for battle.

Tenten rushed forward, a song on her lips as she danced with weapons in her hands. A broad axe was held aloft in her left hand; in her right was a jagged and malformed spike with a flanged arrowhead of a point to denote its nature as a lance. It had been forged by Naruto, whose ever-growing demonic presence had poured into the weapon with the trust that Tenten would wield it well.

As it snaked forward between two enemies before being twisted back, cutting through the throats of the Ame-nin, Neji had to believe that his teammate was using the weapon correctly. He saw the picture clearly for what it was; with a weapon of her father in the left, and a weapon of her brother in the right, she made the family whole. The weapons made by the Jie were nearly as famous as their wielders, and Tenten was just as much a smith as she was a warrior.

Her blood burned with the heat of a forge-fire, and her mind was as clear as a reflection off of mirror-steel. She had embraced, in full, her father's first teaching: the flame and the void. All of existence, all her thoughts and feelings, were fed individually to the miniscule blaze of a single candle. Eventually, there would be nothing left for the fire to consume except for itself. In that void, that empty state of being, there was no stopping Tenten. Precise and methodical, death was a shadow that her enemies couldn't shake.

The earth would drink their blood with abandon.


	72. The Final Battle, II

**HERE WE GO, BOYS! And girls, don't think I'm leaving you out.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. OneLunchMan: Predictability is an author's mortal sin. It's up there with, "using the same adjective/adverb five times in the same paragraph," "rhyming a word with itself," "using words that, even in context, need a dictionary to understand," and of course, the dreaded, "Mary Sue."**

 **For real, though, I'm...amazed at how the story's grown, and the fact that I've stuck with it. This originally started as a side project to allow me to split my stream of conscious thought while writing _As Long As The Raven Flies,_ but I don't think I've written a chapter for that fic since I started writing this. I'm glad you've stuck with me through the whole thing so far, as it's drawing to its eventual close.**

 **2\. Generation Zero: Don't worry, we're gonna hit that point soon...and thanks, it's good to be back.**

 **3\. Noahendless: One does one's best.**

 **4\. Lost my shoe in Sheol: All good things must come to an end; all bad things must die. That's the nature of the universe, unfortunately. On the bright side, we've still got a little bit of time left before the whole thing is over and done with; I can squeeze a few more chapters out of this plot.** **I've put a lot of references in, most prominently from _Wheel of Time_ and _Dune,_ but some things are my own creation. And, of course, we can't forget the _Berserk_ references.**

 **ALSO, since I forgot to do it last chapter (as I normally do it every 10 chapters,) here's the popularity standings so far for _Within the Straws I Grasp,_ as of Chapter 71:505 reviews, 556 favorites, and 724 followers. It's also been added to 4 C2s, and has passed 262,000 unique hits. Thank you, everybody, for your support! Now, as always... **

**Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

 _A steady blade balances the soul._

Naruto still remembered Higurashi's seventh teaching. Resting easily in his hand, the falx his father-figure had created was patiently waiting for its chance to kill. There was little holding him back, but he stood still.

Time stood with him.

"Let's get this show on the road." He said, shifting his weight before beginning a short dash forward.

Small splashes came up from the ground as Naruto ran, and Pein never took his eyes off of the dim red light that shone in place of the Jinchuriki's eyes. There was a hollow feeling there, more than just the empty eye sockets; this was not a battle Naruto would take joy in. This was not even, in the blond teen's mind, a battle.

It was a dull chore, a necessary task that had been ignored too long. Like a child forced to confront the consequences of living in his own filth after not cleaning his room for months, the intention to destroy the Rikudo Pein was something akin to an admission that Naruto should have dealt with them sooner.

The swinging of his falx was blocked by a long black rod, though the demonic metal bit into the chakra receiver. The cut wasn't much, but it brought a volume of information to Pein; the chakra receivers had never been cracked, chipped, or broken before. They were beyond metal, a holy instrument of the Rinnegan that was a symbol of his strength...and Naruto had cut it.

"Shinra Tensei." Tendo declared, launching Naruto backwards.

In midair, Naruto activated another copy of the seal that replicated the _Bansho Ten'in,_ pulling the Tendo Pein out of position. Without hesitation, Rei and Kouga sliced the body into uneven pieces.

"One way or another, I _will_ find you, Nagato. Face the death you fought so hard to earn." Naruto declared.

"That's not gonna work, piss-for-brains. You really think he'll show himself just because you ask?" Tayuya questioned.

"Oh, hell no. But he deserves to know that I'm coming for him."

The corpse-puppet behind the other paths of Pein summoned forth Enma, and returned the two slain paths to the battlefield.

"Okay." Tayuya said after a short pause. "That's bullshit. I just want everybody to know: that's some goddamned fucking bullshit."

"Your kind have plagued civilization since the gods died. You are a cancer upon this world, and I will be the surgeon to excise you."

Naruto laughed, deep red youki coating his body in its miasma and making his wild appearance even more ferocious. The words he spoke next were not his own.

"Tell me, Nagato...why do birds fly?"

The world had never known a doom as fearsome as Uzumaki Naruto.

"To hunt for prey, and to avoid capture by their would-be predators." Pein answered.

That was the wrong answer.

"Birds fly because they have wings. They fly because they _must._ The world has broken my bones and tried to pluck my pinions, but still...I will ride again on the winds of time."

Blood fell from empty eye sockets, and both sides rushed each other.

* * *

Kiba yipped with wild joy as he crushed an Ame-nin's skull in, momentarily ignoring the kunai that grazed his arm. The poison on it was quickly diluted by his feral blood, and he continued his rampage.

"Kiba!" Ino shouted, trying to get the half-transformed beastman under a modicum of control.

Failing that, she instead moved to break the minds of the enemies before them. Dodging a senbon, she inwardly hoped that every area of the battlefield was being handled as well as they were doing here.

Kunai thrown at her were redirected with psychic force. Swords that were swung in her direction bent themselves at sharp angles, turning back to stab their wielders. This was a Yamanaka's potential.

Choji's rotund bulk moved to the side of them, an enlarged fist smashing several opponents into paste on the cobblestone beneath them. His strength was a whirling dervish, the flow of battle moving with him. Rocks moved around them, and Ino had to turn her head to look away from the samurai who was crushed to death.

He knew what he'd signed up for.

Ahead of them all, Hulasikali Wala laughed in the face of death as his foes fell before him. Sand was sand, dry or wet, and his dominion over the dunes was immutable. Even here, so far from his ancestral home, the demon of the open desert tore limb from limb.

Akamaru howled, dog and human taking on their greatest transformation together as the line between man and beast was shed. Of one mind and body, after their combination jutsu, a red-pelted werewolf stared his enemies down. Standing to his full height, he reached nine feet tall at the shoulder, and his forearms extended for nearly half of that length. Wicked claws extended from his furred hands and feet, pointed teeth a warning to any that moved close.

 _Feanor,_ his mother had named him when he'd shown her he could take this form. In the old tongue, it meant, _"the Spirit of Fire,"_ and his primary element supported the name. That was not the title that called to him, however, and Sasuke had already taken it; there was an older name, a vengeful name, whose presence never left his mind. He was not Kiba. He was not Akamaru.

He was _Fenrir,_ the wolf who had swallowed the sun. Fenrir, a child of Nekomata born from the mortal plane before the age of gods had ended. Fenrir, who would find his way back to the burning desolation that was his parent.

His wild howl, and the spouts of flame that followed from his nostrils, sent chills down the spines of those who stood before him. With a mighty swing, clawed hands dug into the flesh of an enemy to throw her backwards into the crowd of Ame-nin. The fiery breath that came afterwards did its job, causing more panic than damage...but Fenrir knew what he was doing.

Wolves were pack-hunters. The more he could crowd his enemies into one space, goad them into an open setting, the easier it would be to crush them. Corral a herd of deer into a grove, and you were certain to feed your pack on at least one of them. Surround your enemies on the battlefield, and you could cut them down with nothing but the weight of numbers on your side.

Viciously, he raked cuts across the face of another ill-fated enemy, and even Hulasikali Wala paused for a moment to behold the brutal simplicity of Fenrir's design. And those eyes...burning with white-hot flames that weren't so far-removed from Naruto's hollow sockets that glowed with unholy light.

 _If I should fall in battle,_ those eyes declared, _it will not be by luck._

Ino resigned herself to watching the backs of the front-line fighters, and eliminating the few foes that got past their brutal offensive.

* * *

A shadowy spike extended from the darkness of Kakuzu's own heart-threads, shattering his Katon mask and nearly managing to pierce the Raiton mask before it withdrew.

"Ugh..." The Taki-nukenin grunted in pain at having one of his hearts slain. "You're strong, boy. Much better than I pegged you for. Why don't you have an entry in the Bingo Book? I'd have recognized your face."

"The best ninja are the ones who can avoid detection." Shikamaru said coldly, all trace of wonderment gone from his face. "And as long as the sun doesn't shine..."

Another Shikamaru rose up from behind the Suiton mask, twin trench knives rending the mask apart.

"...I'm immortal."

Kakuzu could have sworn that he saw the Nara heir's eyes flash red for a moment. It was a vestige of Naruto's bled-out power having infiltrated the tenketsu and keirakukei of his comrades. And in that moment, Shikamaru was emboldened. Dark wisps manifested like small tongues of flame around his body, ethereal and taunting. Something felt off to Kakuzu, but he couldn't place it. Neither could he identify the dread that filled his heart: he'd never faced an opponent like this before. It was like something out of a storybook.

The shadows around them grew sharper, more defined, and expanded into a circle.

"Nara Kinjutsu: Houko-sha no Yoru."

The circle of shade spun around them, a sense of vertigo setting in as the world twisted around them. To the casual observer, the land that contained them seemed to flip; in an instant, both men were gone.

The _Houko-sha no Yoru,_ the Nightwalker art,was a technique that led its user to a place that was between realms. It was not the world of the living, but it was not the land of the dead. It was not the Heavenly Throne, and it was not Makai. If anything, it was a world of darkness...a world of dreams, not meant to be seen by men.

Towering spirits wandered aimlessly. Shikamaru knew from experience that they would ignore him if he paid no attention to them. Instead, he moved his focus back to his opponent: the profoundly lost Kakuzu, calm despite the overwhelming nature of his worry.

"The more you sense them, the more they sense you." Shikamaru said.

At a mention of _them,_ Kakuzu looked around, seeing the eponymous Nightwalkers. The sight startled him, attracting the gaze of more than one of the youkai to his position.

"Where are we? What did you do? This isn't a Genjutsu! What did you do?"

"This is the graveyard of the Nara, and the fountain of our power. This is our battlefield, and your tomb."

Dark energy cloaked Shikamaru like a second skin. A ring of the Nara-wraiths had formed around Kakuzu, who was trying his hardest to use his hearts in order to stave them off. First his Raiton heart, then his Futon heart, were killed, leaving him with only his original: Doton.

"No. No! It can't end like this!"

Shikamaru closed his eyes, dropping into a crouch and assuming his "thinking" stance. Kakuzu charged forward, intent on killing his enemy no matter what happened to himself, but the ghosts of the dark world would never give him the chance. As Shikamaru vanished into the shadows of forgotten dreams, Kakuzu was possessed by several of the wights that stalked the plane of non-existence.

His skin changed to a dark, mottled purple. His teal eyes lost their iris, and then his cornea changed from white to incandescent blue. No longer was he Kakuzu of the Akatsuki. Now and forever, he was no more than a ghost who would haunt the world of the dead.

With a silent prayer of thanks to his ancestors, Shikamaru returned to the land of the living. There would be no fanfare for his victory, but he didn't need a celebration. He was doing his job; that was enough. Though he couldn't see it, his eyes flashed red again, and he felt a deep wellspring of pride rush up through his heart.

In silence, in darkness, there was no one on earth who could match him.

* * *

Deidara barely had the opportunity to dodge the flock of ink birds that flew his way, blood pounding in his ears as he dropped his altitude to avoid certain death. Sai didn't seem to care how many times his creations missed, his manic gaze locked on to Deidara's visible eye.

Chakra guided Sai downward, his tipless tanto slashing at Deidara for a fruitless attack. It cut a wide stroke through the arsonist's Akatsuki robe, but managed precious little else. That didn't matter, though; in moments, as Deidara reeled backwards from the assault, ink tigers came forward. Leaping away, the blond formed a half-Ram seal, and Sai's crop-top vest burned away as he narrowly avoided the explosion.

"An artistic impasse, hm?" Deidara said. "You're good, though. I can appreciate your talent. A traditionalist approach, and a modern finish. Looking at you, though, I'd have expected more of a dadaist style?"

A king snake, a _real_ snake, coiled around Sai's leg and wound its way up his body; the pale-skinned boy didn't flinch as its scales meshed against his skin. It meant him no harm. How could it?

He was seated at the right hand of his father.

 **"Kuchiyose no Jutsu..."** The snake whispered, barely loud enough for Sai to hear before it disappeared. In its place, standing back-to-back with his son, was Orochimaru.

"Father."

"Son." They were not allies, and both of them knew that. But Orochimaru had a cause for coming to aid his only child, something more than a willingness to see the Akatsuki destroyed.

His son was all that remained, for him. _Sai_ was an apt name, the name of a tool designed to destroy the weapons of others. In all likelihood, it would have been the boy's purpose if he'd gone to Otogakure instead of remaining in Konoha.

Such things were inconsequential. All that mattered, in this battle, was that he keep his son alive and kill Deidara. With fast hands, Orochimaru ran through hand seals to perform the _Yomi no Orochi._ A snake-like creature shot forward from his arm, wreathed in negative energy that shredded the clay bombs that Deidara sent to deter it.

The White Snake moved with the lithe grace he'd been made famous by, and smiled with wicked abandon as Deidara blew up the bird they stood upon. When he landed on the next one with his former compatriot aboard, there was no sign of damage or destruction to his form.

In the time it had taken for Nagato to kill him, at his hidden base in Hi no Kuni, Orochimaru had perfected his greatest technique. At long last, after all the loss that had happened throughout his life, Orochimaru would take Sasori's road of eternity to a new level.

He'd seen his parents die before his very eyes. He'd killed his own sensei in battle. Jiraiya and Tsunade were both dead. Minato and Kushina were dead. The world was dying. Throughout it all, only his son remained.

His son, and his final experiments. Naruto, and his time-lost children, were somewhere on this battlefield. He'd done terrible, unspeakable things to that boy in the name of perfecting his own immortality.

His pursuits had been rewarded. Naruto had not.

He would make sure that his extended family never suffered again.

* * *

There was a certain undying, undeniable rage in Sasuke's heart as he stared down the many clones of Zetsu that rose up from the ground around him. Sakura had been hit cleanly in the shoulder, knocked unconscious, and the carnivorous fly trap that was Zetsu's form had been drawn to it like a moth towards an open flame.

 **"We can** smell her blood." The two-toned man declared. "Be a good boy, **and stand aside so we can devour her."**

Sasuke did no such thing. Instead, his hands began to move through the seals for _Katon: Nenshou Nami._ The Burning Wave technique was aptly named, flames seeming to spring up from the ground like volcanic magma as they moved to wash over Zetsu...but it wasn't to be. The plant-man had been given enough time to sink to the safety of the underground, and re-emerged shortly after with Sakura's wounded body in sight. He'd been fast enough to avoid the flames born of Sasuke's anger.

But there was no living being on earth fast enough to escape the fire of his hatred. The Mangekyou whirled to life in Sasuke's eyes, and he wept blood as he called forth the _Amaterasu_ to burn through Zetsu's body. Black flames sprouted all along the body of the ancient creature who'd once been human, and Zetsu howled in fury. One by one, clones of White Zetsu rose up; if their main body couldn't take the prey it wanted by force, then sheer numbers would secure their victory.

Naruto was the Sightless, the Child of Damnation, reborn time and again. Sasuke was _Hi no Seishin,_ the Spirit of Fire, and the wielder of the Curse of Hatred. But Zetsu...Zetsu was something else entirely. Born of a demon, and a human woman, yet not truly either. Given the blessings of an undying god, yet barred from entry to the Heavenly Throne by virtue of his father's blood. He was a bizarre, twisted creature, broken and unholy as he stood before the light of day.

He would not be denied of his meal. He would feast on her flesh.

"You know, I really need to thank Naruto, one of these days. Katon: Higen'ya!"

A bastardized version of the Hokage's favorite Raiton technique, the _Higen'ya_ functioned almost exactly the same way; points of warmth sprouted flames that connected with one another, an immersive web of fire that could hardly be moved through. One by one, he watched as every clone of Zetsu inside the technique's range was burned to ashes.

"You don't have to do this alone, Sasuke." A woman's voice called, similar and yet so far-removed from one he'd heard long ago. With the mask removed from Maya's face, she looked awfully similar to...

"Izumi." His mind raced, trying to come up with a logical explanation of what was going on. Why was a dead woman here, in the flesh? She'd cast away her Akatsuki robe, murder on her mind as she stared Zetsu down.

"'How,' and 'why,' are the wrong questions to ask. Get out of here, and take that girl with you. You're the only one who can save her, Sasuke. I promise, once we make it through this, your brother and I will explain."

Sasuke growled, gritting his teeth as he lifted Sakura up.

"I'm holding you to that." He said, bounding away. No sooner was he out of sight, however, than Itachi appeared to replace him.

"Hello, Zetsu." The prodigal son of the Uchiha greeted his associate, now his enemy. There was a bored, almost inconvenienced look on his face, until he offered a hand to Izumi.

"Shall we dance, my moon and stars?"

They smiled at one another. Here, now, without Sasuke to witness the gulf between the Mangekyou and the Rinnegan...carnage would follow, a merciless affront to every pacifist ideal that Itachi stood for. Zetsu remembered those eyes. Those cursed, vile eyes.

Death followed their gaze.


	73. The Final Battle, III

**At long last, another chapter. I hope it's worth the wait, folks.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. TenorSax93: I'm glad you enjoy it so much! As a fellow tenor sax player who was also born in '93...same hat? Same hat.**

 **2\. iamcompton: Late reviews are still taken, and absolutely still appreciated.**

 **3\. RedCide47: I was always intent on that, he's too large a force in the series (even in canon) to leave out of the final battle, or to leave as an enemy; Kishimoto thought so, and that's my take on it too. Besides, I invested too much time into exploring his character and his thoughts in this fic to just...leave him out to dry, you know?**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

Neji couldn't lie: he was _terrified_ of the weapon in Tenten's hands. It was monstrous, and he didn't even have words to describe it. The sheer _size..._ it made no sense to him. As much as he concentrated on the battle before him, he wasn't the only one who was distracted every so often by the dark flash of its side.

She called it the _Dragonslayer._ Looking at it, Neji wouldn't have been surprised if it had actually been used to kill one of the extinct beasts; it was bladed, and common sense decreed that he label it a sword, but he couldn't bring himself to. At more than seven feet long, two feet wide, and eight inches thick at its center, Tenten may as well have been swinging a wall on a handle.

That thing was much too big to be called a sword. Too big, too thick, too heavy, and too rough. It was more like a hunk of raw iron. The razored edge was far from ornamental, but every time Tenten swung it, she seemed to fling her enemies' broken bodies rather than tear through them. It stopped jutsu, no other weapon left burrs in the blade, and its sheer size forced Amegakure's natives to give Tenten respect.

One particularly unfortunate man had his arm and ribs crushed by Tenten's backswing, and Neji offered up a silent prayer to the dead gods.

 _Poor bastard._

Neji returned his full focus to the war before him, _Jyuuken_ stances flowing seamlessly after a lifetime of practice.

"Kaiten!" He shouted, redirecting a flurry of weapons away from himself.

Through the mass of chakra that his Byakugan bore witness to, he felt a familiar presence. Two, he realized; Sasuke was carrying Sakura on his back. Not that Neji would have known it was Sasuke, of course, except for one small detail: an incessant chirping noise, like the cries of a thousand different songbirds whose sole wish was to bring death to whatever stood in front of it.

Not songbirds, Neji thought. The only conclusion he could come to was _magpies._ The _asshole birds,_ as Tayuya had once appropriately named them, were infamous for attacking anyone and everyone they thought that they could...which was to say, civilians. Poor bastards. That was the world Neji was fighting to protect: one where birds could swoop down and beat the living daylights out of some random person walking down the street.

Sometimes, he wasn't sure why he even bothered.

"We need to clear a path for Sasuke-kun." Hinata spoke softly, but her eyes were determined. "He's not going to make it on his own."

She was right. Between the younger of the Uchiha brothers and safety were at least two hundred Ame-nin of varying rank. Even for someone as strong as a member of the former Rookie Twelve, that was too tall an order.

"Kaimon, open."

Lee was not the only one of Gai's pupils to have learned that particular secret.

Neji released the first of the Inner Gates, and felt a welcome rush of energy flood his body like the bursting of a dam. With the strength of ten men, he bowled into the rain-slick streets and set to work on his one-man suicide mission; he couldn't afford to cut into them one by one, that would take too long. He would meet Sasuke in the middle, allowing his comrade to make an escape, and then...

...well, what would happen, would happen. Neji didn't like to make assumptions.

* * *

If there was nothing else he could fall back on, Naruto had the _Kage Bunshin._ It had been his bread-and-butter technique for the beginning of his career as a shinobi, and clones were almost like an unregulated currency when it came to his fighting style.

Every shuriken and kunai he threw, every piece of sealing paper that he used, was a clone created with one purpose in mind: the intent to kill...but Pein was aware of that fact. Each time one of the paths dodged a weapon, they were quick to dispatch the clone that emerged to attack. Nothing, however, could have prepared him for what the young Hokage did next.

Empty eye sockets stared forward, hollow and unflinching as Naruto worked a jagged kunai through the center of his left palm until the whole head was sticking out the other side. There was an involuntary hiss from the pain, as Pein could only expect from such a self-harming move, but then Naruto seemed to relax; it was as if, without some constant source of pain in his body, Naruto didn't know how to function like a human being anymore.

His movements were fluid, the former dead-last moving with the watery grace of a master assassin. The weight of the kunai hardly seemed to affect his balance, and the blood running down each side of his hand meant nothing to him.

And then the power exuding from that wound, the Kyuubi's raw youki leaking like a sieve into the world, hit Nagato's senses like a twenty-ton hammer. Unseen by the naked eye, but visible to his Rinnegan, was a malefic aura that made the other Biju and Hulasikali Wala seem like ants in comparison; each of the ancient demons had been born as the avatar of an element or sin, or both. Kurama was the strongest of the nine by far, its very life force a wellspring of hatred that ran deeper than any living memory.

It was Kurama's hatred that had allowed it to grow powerful enough to strike down the gods who ruled from the Heavenly Throne. It was Kurama's luck that had kept Naruto alive for the last seventeen years.

But the only way to be capable of feeling a hatred that strong was to have loved with equal intensity, and Kurama had looked up to his brother more than any of the other Biju. That same brother had the life ripped from him, made to die because of unjust gods who cared for power more than their mortal subjects.

The last vestige of the dead gods' power stood before Naruto now, patience slowly wearing thin...until the change set in around them. Heat radiated from Naruto's body, rain evaporating before it could reach his skin. The drops of blood that fell from his stabbed hand hissed as they hit the pavement, searing it. Bloody eye sockets glowed with infernal power, bright red light shining from within.

 **"All of my pain. Everything that caused me to suffer."** Naruto said. **"The blood, sweat, and tears I've shed to protect those precious to me...every roadblock put in my way. When you piece them together, they all fall back to a single point of origin: the Akatsuki. As the leader, you bear the responsibility for the actions of your subordinates. It's your duty to answer for their crimes."**

"Rei, Kouga, Tayuya, go. It's too dangerous for you to be here." Oboro said.

The twins nodded, vanishing with a perfectly-synced _shunshin._ Tayuya turned to look at her not-yet mother-in-law, confusion evident.

"You're planning to stay? I think I'm a little fuckin' safer than you are, since I've got a goddamn demon inside me and all." She said.

"Nagato and I are the last of the Uzushio-born Uzumaki. Both of us should have left this forsaken world behind a long time ago. I was born in the time between the Warring Clans Era and the First Great War. I saw the clan's beginning, helped us rise to power...and I ran from the inevitable fall, too concerned for my daughter's life to try saving my husband or clansmen. I will watch the new era be born."

"But-" Tayuya's protestations went unfinished, blue and red ink flying across Oboro's arms and palms before the seal completed itself and teleported Tayuya to the back lines of the battlefield.

"Leave, Oboro-sama. We cannot guarantee your safety." The Tendo Pein said.

 **"Go."** Naruto demanded. **"Don't look back. Don't come back. One way or another, it ends here."**

"I am the relic of a bygone age, older than both of you combined. You won't tell me what I can or can't do. One way or another, I'll witness the end."

There was a pause, before an oppressive feeling of dread washed over both men.

You don't fuck with the clan matriarch.

* * *

"I don't have enough swear words to tell you how screwed we are right now." Kankuro said to Lee. "We are in all _kinds_ of deep shit. Us? You and me, pal? We're fucked."

"Don't tell me you're giving up now? I was pretty impressed by that blow, not much can break through Hiruko." Sasori responded.

"What? Nah, still gonna fight. What kinda pansy-ass do you take me for?" Kankuro shot back. "Doesn't mean I don't know how this could play out, though."

There was iron in the young puppeteer's voice, the heat of the desert brought into this rain-wet country.

"Out of respect for our profession, then, I'll finish this quickly. No fancy tricks, just my skill as a puppet-master against yours." A rope shot forward from Sasori's gut, its bladed end racing for Kankuro's face, only to be grabbed by Lee. The line immediately went taut, and Sasori cut the line rather than risk the Konoha-nin utilizing his overwhelming strength.

"My favorite puppet is one you may find familiar. I've...modified him a little bit, but that's nothing you need to worry about at this exact moment."

With the telltale puff of smoke denoting a summoning, Kankuro stared at his grandfather's machined face in horror.

"The Sandaime Kazekage!" He exclaimed. "So when he went missing during the Third Great War..."

"I didn't kill him, if that's what you're asking. Pein did, and I just...happened upon them as he died. I thought it was a shame to let such a powerful man's skills go to waste in a grave somewhere." Sasori said.

"Well, you aren't the only one with a trick up your sleeve." Kankuro grinned, looking more confident than he felt. "I'm Sabaku no Kankuro, elder son of the Yondaime Kazekage, Rasa and adviser to the current Godaime Kazekage, Gaara. I handle internal affairs, I write our bugdet, and I _also_ clean up the messes that my family has left sitting for far too long...such as yourself. I am seated at the right hand of the father, and the left hand of the mother."

Twin popping sounds were the sign for Sasori to stay on his guard. He didn't know what was coming, but...

"Oh. Oh my, boy. _Very_ impressive."

Kankuro stood between two human puppets, the spitting images of his parents: Rasa and Karura watched over their children, even in death.

"I wonder what's stronger. Blood and iron, or dust and gold?" The middle Sabaku child said. "Lee, run for backup. That's the most helpful thing you can do now."

The green-clad shinobi saluted, launching away far faster than Sasori could strike him with the Sandaime Kazekage's _Satetsu._ Of course, Kankuro was fairly certain what would happen next; he just hadn't wanted to say it out loud.

 _Let my sister know where my body will be._

He was confident in his skills, one of the best puppet-masters that Sunagakure had possessed...as expected of the Sabaku clan. But since the end of the Second Great War, stories had been told of the _Akasuna._ Over the last forty years, Sasori had killed more people than Kankuro had known in his entire life. There was no one with a higher mastery of their art.

There was no question that, unless he had the luck of demons, he wouldn't see the next day. But he'd had a good run, in his own estimation, and his parents would see him fight to the very end.

* * *

"You've tried for thousands of years to wipe us out, Zetsu. You couldn't do it while your sister was alive, and you couldn't do it when you instigated the Warring Clans Era. You couldn't do it when you corrupted my great-grandfather, or Obito, and you couldn't do it when you forced my hand. What makes you think that you can do it now?"

Itachi's Rinnegan stared Zetsu down unflinchingly, and the living flytrap merely growled in indignation.

"This is the end, Zetsu. Your sister's oldest son will cast you down again."

"If you think it'll be that easy, **then go ahead and try it. I am my father's son."**

"Naruto? Oh, no. You're not half the fighter he is. Katon: Karyuu Nami."

A dragon of fire shot out to the pavement from Itachi's downturned palm, and then an explosive swath of flames swept around him to obliterate the many White Zetsu clones in the area.

 **"Always so cocksure,** as though there can only be one outcome. **Those eyes tell you what was, and what is,** but they're blind to the truth of what will be."

"Solitude is the Uchiha curse, our doom even when surrounded by those we care for." Izumi said. "When a wolf is cut off from its pack, it has to be the pinnacle of its species to survive alone. The only remnants of our family are all survivors, whose souls have endured hardship and tragedy time after time."

Izumi warped with the _Kamui,_ and put Zetsu between herself and her beloved.

"Shinra Tensei." Itachi said, bowling Zetsu back into Izumi's waiting kunai as she sprang away to avoid the counter-attack.

"I am one among the roots that serves the Great Tree." The Rinnegan-bearer intoned. "The embers that feed the Will of Fire."

The great gunbai of an elder age was unsealed, held at a downward angle in Itachi's hands. His _Susano'o_ was like armor, layered over his body in an ethereal fashion that seemed out of place with reality...much like the face-splitting smile of manic lust that was so unlike Itachi. And yet, it was far from impossible to believe that he would end up succumbing to the Uchiha blood-rage; Itachi's brutality was infamous among village shinobi and nukenin alike. And now, it was all focused on a single target.

Above them, the sky wept.

* * *

"It's been a good, long time since we really got to cut loose." Zabuza grinned, armor-tape loosening around his mouth and falling down. "Bring it on, you fucking freak."

"You're one to talk. No normal human can keep up with one of the shark-men." Kisame replied.

Both swordsmen leveled their blades at one another, trading blows for at least the dozenth time in the last five minutes. It was monotonous, hardly more than a spar if they disregarded the other's intent to kill.

 _ **Yog uln l' ya, gof'n ot shuggoth, ng mggoka ya r'luh.**_

Zabuza didn't know that voice, and he didn't know those words, but he felt them inside of him. It was a voice, asking something of him.

 ** _Llll fahf shugnah, ya n'ghauh'e ah'legeth fhtagn. Uln ya yaah._**

What did it want? He didn't know, but as the _Samehada_ clashed with the _Kubikiri,_ he received the visions of a being long gone from mortal kenning. A creature that was far removed from demonic essence, but hardly holy...and yet, what could it be but one of the dead gods? The Star-Dreamer, a mystic who had come to this world at the beginning of the Age of Gods and given those gods power. The final member of the heavenly court, slain by the Kyuubi in its rage-driven massacre. And yet, it still lived on, in a place tied to the world despite being beyond its grasp.

Zabuza knew it was a terrible idea, but he couldn't help it. He wasn't immune to the power of a god, even though he had no interest in whatever deal was being offered.

"Yog nafl'fhtagn, Cthulhu. Zhro."

"What?" Kisame asked.

Zabuza's next swing bit into the scaly exterior of the _Samehada,_ and both men heard the blade squeal in fear as the broken section changed colors; it faded from a healthy blue to a deep black, and then to sickly brown, in a matter of seconds.

"Never seen that happen before." Zabuza said. "Hope you're ready to die."

Zabuza's chakra focused itself, taking on a visible form as Kisame watched it. They swung their swords once again, but the _Samehada_ had its own feelings of self-preservation to guide it. It knew that striking the _Kubikiri,_ in Zabuza's current state, was a death sentence...so it fell from Kisame's hand, and the shark-man almost didn't have time to dodge.

"What the fuck is going on?"

"I have no goddamn idea." Zabuza said, only halfway lying. "But you know what? I feel awful. I'm stronger now than I've ever been, but there's this...dread in my gut."

"Well, there's no helping it now. Let's finish this, Zabuza. The only way we know how."

Kisame had picked the _Samehada_ back up, but his massive overhand swing was too high to block the rising uppercut from the _Kubikiri Houcho._ Zabuza's vaunted blade cut deep into the fish-man's side, cleaving through his ribs and collapsing a lung.

Another vision came: the Star-Dreamer corrupting a group of humans in the time before the Age of Gods, destroying both their minds and their genetic purity. They turned into pseudo-cannibals, consuming human flesh the way another man might eat chicken or pork. Their numbers dwindled on the surface of the world, but there was always a surviving family. The sword that the clan scion wielded, the _Samehada,_ was another perverse invention of the Star-Dreamer; a human body and mind, twisted into the form of a sword by the shallow desires of a monstrous entity.

Kisame was the last of that family, and he slumped to the ground.

"Goddamn it. I should have...had you." The shark-man bled out as his former comrade watched passively. After Kisame's death, Zabuza's living chakra reached out towards the _Samehada_ and consumed its living essence. All that remained was the blackened husk of scales and teeth.


	74. The Final Battle, IV

**And here we are again. It's nice to be able to write consistently for the first time in a long time; I just sat down and pumped this out in a couple days. Hopefully you've had a nice week and a half since the last chapter? Mine's been decent. Climbed up about 120 SR in Overwatch, and finally sort-of crawled out of ELO hell, I've been playing a lot of _Fallout 3_ again...good times. And you know what? While I'm on the subject, you bet your sweet ass that I ship male Lone Wanderer/Amata. They're husband and wife, sorry not sorry. I don't make the rules, I just follow them.**

 **But that's enough about me.**

 **Review Response Time!**

 **1\. Noahendless: But if neither Fate nor Destiny can be controlled, then do we _really_ control the journey?**

 **2\. tastybigsexy: Believe me, I'd love to have something published one of these days. My perfectionism works against me, though...if it's not fanfic, then I obsess over it and end up throwing transcripts away because I don't think they're good enough. And even with my fics, I've been known to throw out entire chapters and rewrite them because I was dissatisfied.**

 **3\. FoxsoulRedux: I had some allusions to it much earlier, even in chapter titles and so on...in his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu lies dreaming.**

 **4\. TenorSax93: While not all of it is my own invention, as by my own admission I've borrowed a fair amount from _Wheel of Time_ and _Dune,_ the dead gods and the lore of this particular fic are my own invention and I'm happy that you enjoy it so much. Genuinely, it means a lot. Hopefully this lives up to your expectations!**

 **5\. windwolf777: I know that feeling, there's nothing more agonizing than reading something that's really far along and then realizing you've caught up and have to wait for updates like all the other people. However, you're more than welcome aboard! Please enjoy your stay.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

Lee was much faster than Kankuro had given him credit for, as he landed among an unfortunate swath of enemies and cut them down with his hurricane kick. Blood sprayed as his weight-laden legs ripped through flesh and bone without an ounce of mercy. On some level, there had been a fundamental change in the Taijutsu prodigy; when Gai had been killed in the explosion that leveled Konoha, a more subdued nature had taken over his loud and cheerful exterior.

These were the people responsible for his beloved sensei's death. Perhaps not directly, but they loved and supported the Akatsuki. For the once-kind Lee, that corroboration was more than enough reason to wipe them from the earth. This was no exercise, no spar...this was war, and Lee was a soldier of death.

His next punch was hard enough that it ripped through the chests of two different Ame-nin, blood soaking the right arm of his jumpsuit and turning it a sickly brown color.

"Lee!" Temari yelled.

He broke the arms of two ninja running at him, twisting the shattered appendages so that their outstretched kunai went into their own throats. He didn't smile, the intense expression on his face a mark of the focus he was putting into the art of murder. Blood of the dead and dying had coated his hands and feet, spattered along his face, and his hands had torn through enough bodies that not even Suigetsu's unholy rain could wash the evidence of Lee's sins away. What was it that allowed him to survive in this place, bereft of chakra, where so many other ninja had been killed? All that he had was the strength of his muscles; Gai had been a more adept fighter, Kakashi had been unparalleled in his knowledge of Ninjutsu.

So why had Lee survived?

 _"You are, truly, a splendid ninja."_ Gai had told him. Those had been his last words to the student who idolized him...and it was time for Lee to prove his sensei correct. The Sandaime Hokage, Gai, Neji, Tenten, Naruto...they had all seen something in him that made them believe he was worthy of a chance. They all believed he wasn't a failure, he was _worth_ something. He needed to prove them right.

Not for them, but for himself.

"Temari, Shino, Haku! Kankuro is in trouble, this way!" The three ninja looked his way, seeing where he was pointing. There were too many Ame-nin able to give chase, and that was where Lee would make his stand.

He ran with them for a few seconds before stopping, turning around to face the horde of enemies that followed behind his friends.

"Kaimon. Kyuumon. Seimon. Shoumon. Tomon. Open."

The rain warped around Lee's body, and his comrades didn't look back. If he hadn't thought he could deal with it, he wouldn't have stayed behind. If he died here, after all, then the Ame-nin would be led to Kankuro and back Sasori up. The stone walkway beneath his feet thrummed with power, vibrations building up in his body like pressure in a volcano, and the small army of Ame-nin came closer.

Volcanoes explode.

The ground cracked under the feet of the world's last Taijutsu master, splits running through the stones around him for longer than he cared to realize. When he jumped, he vanished from his enemies' sight, only to drop down in the blink of an eye for a captive-less _Omote_ _Renge._ The resulting corkscrew downward split the earth open and killed a half-dozen of his opponents, and he sprung away from their corpses with fresh blood staining the front of his jumpsuit.

"What the hell is he?" One of the Ame-nin asked aloud.

"I am the winter winds. Just as they sweep through the ancient trees of my home, I shall sweep through you."

Lee replied, his voice amplified by the power of the _Hachimon._ As easily as another ninja might have called up their chakra, Lee allowed the weights along his arms and legs to fall away. It would be spring soon; January was halfway over, and winter never lasted long in Hi no Kuni.

Lee wondered what springtime was like, on the blood-soaked floodplains that surrounded Amegakure no Sato. It was more temperate here, with a heat which was much less humid than in Konoha. Was that because of the rain? Whatever the next season would bring, none of the men or women standing in front of him would live to see it come to pass.

Before his weights had hit the ground, he moved with the grace of a man who sat at the Hokage's right hand. By the time the dust from their fall had settled, there was nobody left to bear witness to the red glint that stayed alive in his eyes. Every time a glimmer of light passed by, they shone for a moment before calming again.

Konoha's noblest soul would protect the few precious friends he had left in the world.

* * *

"You know, Deidara, you miscalculated when you tried to fight both my son and myself."

"Really? Why's that, you dumb bastard?" Iwa's infamous blond bomber grinned, though his mirth proved to be short-lived.

"Because you're in my world now, not your world...and I've got friends on the other side."

The _Edo Tensei_ was an unforgiving art, dark wood rising up from the clay bird that Orochimaru stood on as Deidara watched helplessly.

"Have you no shame, Orochimaru?" The Godaime Hokage asked.

"Tsunade...as lovely as ever. And you, Jiraiya?"

"Oh, I've been better. Care to explain why we're in...Ame? No, you can't possibly-"

"Naruto marched on Pein's fortress, yes. I'm here to help him, although he'd probably try to devour me alive if he saw me."

"With good reason!"

"Wouldn't matter, I perfected _that_ jutsu. I no longer have to transfer between bodies anymore...now, please, help me fight? I'd hate to leave all this work to my son."

"Go fuck yourself. Art is-" Deidara began.

Orochimaru tapped the clay bird with Raiton chakra, grinning smugly as it didn't blow up on his opponent's command.

"The work of a mind that should have put more thought into battle than creativity." Jiraiya laughed. "Katon: Karyuu Endan!"

The burning dragon, shot at point-blank range, gave Deidara neither the time to escape nor protect himself. He emerged from it with his cloak burnt to cinders, and an unhealthy pink tint to his normally pale skin. The Sannin, reunited in spite of their deaths, were unharmed.

"Doton: Yomi Numa!" Jiraya called forth the Dark Swamp.

"Senjutsu: Kotei-ka Kiba!" Orochimaru used his own Snake Sage technique, twin vipers summoned from their home to paralyze Deidara with the Immobilization Fang.

Unable to use his arms or legs, Deidara was forced to watch Tsunade come forward in full knowledge of what was about to happen. He saw her pull a hand back, and he could _feel_ the chakra she was pouring into it. Nothing, nobody, could save him now; he couldn't even activate his final technique, to become art and obliterate the land around them. His eyes, filled with a sudden fear of the unknown, saw the former Hokage's fist rocket forward .

As his head was rent from his shoulders in one clean blow, Deidara saw no more.

"Go, Sai. Help your friends. I have some loose ends to tie up with my former associates."

* * *

"Sasuke! Hurry!" Neji shouted, his hands not moving fast enough.

For every _Kaiten_ he used, rending to shreds each enemy who dared to approach him, it felt like six more took each fallen comrade's place. Was there an end to them? But the bird-cry of Sasuke's _Chidori_ was getting closer. All he had to do was make sure that his ally, his _friend,_ could make it to safety with Sakura. To himself, Neji was nothing but a leaf, dancing on the wind.

Sasuke, Hinata, Tenten, Naruto...all of them would watch him soar. That was enough. What was that phrase Tenten had thrown out there, a time or two? _Dovie'andi se tovya sagain?_ It was time to toss the dice.

Neji roared in fury, fingertip strikes and palm thrusts turning into punches that carried a lifetime of regret and damnation in their knuckles. His knees buried themselves in two separate enemies as he stopped the heart of a third, attacking on all fronts until, at long last, he saw Sasuke's face amid the crowd of enemies. One final _Kaiten_ cleared a path for the Uchiha, who nodded gratefully as he bounded forward.

He broke free, separated from the rest of his kin by a wall of enemies that closed behind him. There were allies here, on another battlefield a short run away, but he would hardly be useful to them in his current state.

As he doubled over on the ground, his perfect vision fading into unconsciousness as he crawled his way to the side of a partially-destroyed building, he remembered the centuries-later response that Tenten and Naruto's beloved phrase had garnered: _Alia iucta est._ The dice are cast.

Had they seen him? Had they watched him soar on the winds of time, and beyond?

As he passed out on the hard rubble below him, the broken stone hardly making for a comfortable bed, he looked up to see two ravens flying above him. A broken hole was opening in the sky, burnt red with an ancient black scar running across it. Was that the Heavenly Throne? Was he dying?

He didn't know the answer, but he had done his duty as a ninja of Konoha. For the proud head of Konoha's most venerated clan, that was more than enough; he had served his Hokage well, he had saved his friend's life, and he had given his all on the battlefield. Closing his eyes, Neji paid no mind to the battles raging around him. Similarly, nobody gave him a second glance either..but a strong heart continued to beat inside his chest.

* * *

"A blight upon the world." Pein said, motioning one hand towards the sky and drawing Naruto's attention to the red-and-black eyesore amid the clouds. "Your doing. Another time, another place, another life...but still the work of Uzumaki Naruto. That is the gateway to the Heavenly Throne, torn asunder thousands of years ago, in one of your past lives."

 **"Save the speeches. I'm gonna rip you to shreds."**

Naruto lunged straight past the Tendo Pein, his open hand wrapping around the Jigokudou Pein's throat and ripping it out. His falx came up before sinking down, splitting the resurrection master's body in twain; there would be no more returns from the grave for Nagato's motley crew of puppet-corpses.

Surrounded by the remaining paths, Naruto paid no attention to them. All that existed was his body, and the pain in his hand from a wound that couldn't be healed. He wouldn't _let_ it heal. Heat, pain, rage, and all the hate he could possibly muster...only those things were real. Only two people existed: ones he would protect, and ones he would kill. He felt like he understood his ancient counterpart, the blind demon with ten tails who had given his life to bring about an end to the reign of gods over men.

He'd never been the type of person who fought to protect himself.

Demonic strength poured volumes into his sword swing, cleaving straight through the black chakra receivers that each Pein carried with them for Kenjutsu. While his earlier clash had left one of those rods chipped, that was before he'd become...this beast that stood before the Rinnegan. Not quite a demon, but something less than human, Naruto was in a class of his own.

The Kyuubi screamed at him, in his mind, not to do what he had harnessed its youki for. At the behest of his long-dead memories, he called forth the ancient architect of man's doomed failure. The Star-Dreamer's right-hand, a demon given holy power, had stalked the shadows for longer than men had lived on the planet they called home.

 **"Zenton: Hofuku Konton."**

A great and unholy shape took form above Naruto's body. Jet black and sinewy, two wings, arms, and feet extended from the billowing malfeasance that was this creature's existence. The Crawling Chaos, the Watcher in the Dark. Faceless, and yet known by every face. Nameless, and yet known by every name. It was ruled by only one notion: to bring the desires of its master to life, and its newest master was Naruto.

 **"Tai'shar Uzushio. Tai'shar Makai."** It said, words coming forward without a mouth from which it might speak. Its chest heaved with heavy breathing, but it had no lungs with which to take in air. Its body seemed to shift with every passing moment. Never truly solid, yet eternally deadly, it knew what it had been called to do.

Twisting and turning as an ever-widening helix that bent in dimensions mankind had never known, its darkened form took the shape of a man who hadn't been seen in many, many long years.

"Where did you go wrong, Nagato?" Uzumaki Josuke, the last true head of the Uzumaki clan before his death at Danzo's hands some forty years prior, asked aloud.

"I am not wrong. My cause is just. I will obey the old gods."

"The gods are dead, boy. Just like your parents, just like me, and just like the rest of our family. We've passed into the annals of history, and our skills will never see the light of day again...except through him. Your mother would be disappointed in you, Nagato."

Josuke's form dissolved back into the greasy darkness of its shapeless truth, tunneling through the air as the Crawling Chaos took hold of each remaining path of Pein. They screamed in unison, flesh bubbling and tearing open as their fingernails and internal organs exploded. One by one, ending with the Tendo Pein, their eyes exploded in a small shower of gore.

The Watcher in the Dark faded to nothingness, sent away once again, as Naruto moved to ransack the city in search of his enemy. Luckily, he had Suigetsu to show him the way.

Oboro, for her part, simply bowed her head and held back tears in the knowledge of what her grandson had become.

* * *

Sasuke had left Sakura with the medics on the back lines, then turned around to charge straight into the enemy's ranks. Hinata was there, leading the remnants of her clan against a far larger force of Ame-nin; their bulk was concentrated here, and the alliance of the Great Nations had spread their forces thin to cover as much ground as possible. Traps had been triggered throughout the city, and countless lives had been lost on both sides of the battlefield.

He and Sakura had gone deep into the city when they were ambushed, an enemy's Fuinjutsu drilling a hole through her shoulder and a weighty mace connecting to the side of her head to knock her out; bad luck and bad timing seemed to run Sakura's way. After Sasuke had killed their trio of assailants, Zetsu had shown up, and only Izumi's arrival had saved them.

He hoped that his brother was still alive, somewhere in this hell on earth. The burnt, gaping hole in the sky was ominous, and Sasuke doubted that it meant anything good would happen.

 _Ox. Rabbit. Monkey._

The _Raikiri,_ an evolved version of the _Chidori_ that Kakashi had taught him years ago, burned brightly in Sasuke's hand. The smell of blood and death was burned away from his nostrils, and he inhaled the taste of ozone and flames with a deep breath. The Sharingan morphed into their Mangekyou form, and he reveled in his unparalleled vision. The _Raikiri_ cut cleanly through his foes, and he drew a kunai before stabbing it through an Ame-nin's throat.

He was _Hi no Seishin,_ the Spirit of Fire. Immaculate, burning brightly for all the world to see, and filled with a power that mortal men shied away from. In his right hand, untouched by the _Raikiri,_ the black flames of _Amaterasu_ gathered in accordance with Sasuke's will. A flick of his wrist sent them fanning outwards, creating a thresher that seared its way through the bodies of men and women alike.

"Katon: Goukakyu!" Sasuke yelled, the Great Fireball rolling forward with abandon.

Out of nowhere, Sai dropped down when it cleared through a swath of enemies and cut through an Ame kunoichi's throat. He retreated quickly, moving to stand next to Hinata.

"Sasuke? Where's Neji?" Hinata asked, and the Uchiha couldn't help but close his eyes in silent prayer for a moment.

He didn't know if the Hyuuga clan head was alive, and he didn't know where Neji had ended up. That was a serious problem; there was little doubt in Sasuke's mind that Neji had overstrained himself to make sure that he and Sakura could reach safety.

"Behind their back line." He gave the only answer he was sure of. "He didn't follow me when I made it through the gap in their line."

Hinata looked down, unable to meet Sasuke's eyes at those words. Sai, on the other hand, faced the army ahead of them without fear. In his flesh and blood, something called to him from deep within. Something he couldn't explain, that ate away at his very consciousness.

"I'll get him back." The Ne operative said.

From far away, and yet so clearly that they could hear it as if it were right next to them, they heard the Howling God's voice.


	75. The Final Battle, V

**No commentary this time. Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

Blood mixed with rain in the broken streets of Amegakure. Buildings were shattered, metal walls ripped apart in jagged sheets and shards. The rain that came down felt oppressive, thickening the air and causing a rapid rise in humidity. There was an ominous feeling that came whenever anyone looked up to the clouds above them, and in the distance, an aura of malice radiated with brutal force. Those who had lived long enough knew it for what it was: the power of a demon. The red-and-black hole in the sky didn't do anything to help ease the sensation of dread that blanketed the city.

With a gap in Suigetsu's rain guiding him, Naruto marched on the Tower of Babel.

That was an old tale, of an ancient god who'd cast mankind down for trying to become greater than they were. It had been slaughtered by the Star-Dreamer with little effort; through the eyes of the Sightless Demon, Naruto had seen it happen. He would, however, repeat that story today: Nagato had climbed higher than almost any other man, straining for the stars in the night sky and the Heavenly Throne in a world beyond his kenning...and there were things among the darkness of the stars that Nagato didn't know to fear. Things that had caused the Star-Dreamer to flee his home and take refuge on the earth.

Naruto climbed the tower from the inside, slowly moving up the long flight of stairs, and pushing his chakra out to the battlefield of the city as he moved upwards in a spiral. Regardless of whatever the outcome might be, corpses littered the city's streets, and Naruto wondered if this is what Konoha had felt like on the night he was born. He had no eyes to see with, but he could feel the dead and the dying. A year ago, all the lives lost in the span of a few hours would have caused him to break down and cry, but his time in captivity had made him a different man. Now, as his sightless eyes turned over the war zone, he felt nothing.

No, _nothing_ was the wrong descriptor. He felt...empty, dissatisfied. Cheated, even. There was something hollow about all this, how differently his life had gone from his expectations as a child. He'd been starry-eyed despite his jaded nature, his dreaming expectations flying far too high for the dirt roads that he was forced to walk on in reality. He'd failed to graduate twice, technically three times; even after becoming a ninja, his sight had only been on the finish line instead of the path it took to get there.

The mission to retrieve Sasuke, and their battle at the Valley of the End. Was that where things had gone so far off-course? As much as he despised the thought, what would have happened if Jiraiya hadn't rescued Tayuya? If he'd never gone to Uzushio and found his blood-family, if he'd never gone to Kirigakure?

It hadn't been until after Jiraiya's death that Naruto realized how much he owed the deceased giant of a man, regardless of what secrets were kept from him or how fast he was being trained. Jiraiya had been a friend to his parents as well as their sensei, and had taken Naruto on as an apprentice despite the pain it caused him. Oboro had explained that to him, once; when his grandmother looked at him, it was a reminder that the daughter she never knew had died long ago. And yet, they had carried on; they were stronger than Naruto believed himself to be.

Tayuya was the only thing in his life that kept him grounded to sanity. If she died, then there was no possible comprehension of what he would do afterwards.

Naruto reached the top of the stairs, the Kyuubi's youki flooding out of him like a broken dam, and stood before Nagato with eyes unclouded by hate.

"I don't think we've ever actually met face-to-face, have we, Naruto? We came close, in Orochimaru's base, but I left right before you reached Tayuya. You know, I never actually apologized to her, she was hell-bent on killing Orochimaru herself and just...couldn't do it, her control over the Sanbi was too weak. Still, she's impressive enough to carry our name."

 **"I didn't come here to talk about my girlfriend, Nagato."**

"Maybe not, but we have plenty of time. You're the driving force here, Naruto. You're the aggressive antagonist who marched on my city and has slaughtered my people. You killed my best friend with your own two hands."

 **"Konan obliterated Konoha. She killed my sensei, along with countless others, and betrayed Jiraiya's memory. I don't feel any remorse over killing her."** Naruto's feral snarl was laced with verbal venom.

"No...I don't suppose you would, would you? You and I, Itachi and Orochimaru...we're all the same. We kill whoever stands in the way of our goals, never looking back or pitying those who we've cut down. When she and Jiraiya-sensei were both alive, she was devoted to him, even if he was nowhere close to her. After he died, she became inconsolable and lost control of herself. He gave everything to his village and, in the end, he was killed by one of his own."

 **"Don't compare me to that snake. I'm not like him, or you. I don't murder innocents! My cause is just!"**

"And my cause is righteous. Would you like to know a secret, Naruto?" Nagato raised an eyebrow.

 **"Fine, I'll humor you."** Naruto snorted derisively.

"I was nothing but a figurehead for the Akatsuki's leadership. Tobi, Obito...he was the real leader, until Itachi killed him. I don't know what Tobi's plans were, but after he died, those plans became inconsequential. As a matter of fact, that was the very same day that Jiraiya-sensei and Tsunade died. Konoha was left with a power vaccuum, and I was truly in charge of the organization I founded as a younger man."

 **"You're a broken record."** Naruto said dismissively.

"And you're a loose cannon." Nagato retorted.

If Naruto had eyes, then he would have rolled them. This was the man that had brought the world crumbling down? A self-righteous religious nutjob? He respected Danzo and Orochimaru more than this; at least those two didn't try to hide their cruelty. This masquerade, of peace through superior firepower, was as far as lunacy went.

Which wasn't to say that Nagato didn't have a point, but there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that he'd admit it.

"Would you like to know another secret?" Nagato continued, not giving Naruto any space to interject. "My eyes, the Rinnegan, tell me what the future holds. The only thing that I know for certain is that you will die."

 **"Y'know, a long time ago, I fought a guy who claimed that fate was absolute, and that his fancy-ass eyes made him better than everyone else. I kicked his ass all around the battlefield, whooped him so good he never said that again. Fought another guy who thought his fantasies were more important than other peoples' lives, and that his fancy-ass eyes made him better than everyone else. He put two holes in my chest, but I still punched the hell out of him, and made sure he never said some dumb shit like that again. But you? I'm gonna pry your teeth out, one by one, and I'm gonna use them as drill-bits to get it through your fucking head that I'm not dying until I _say_ I'm dying."**

"Well, at least you haven't lost your enthusiasm." Nagato grinned.

 **"Haven't lost my ability to beat the shit out of you, either."**

"You are the scion of demons, Naruto. I am the child of an elder god. The holy strength of the divine will always triumph over demonic corruption."

Kurama probably had something to say in protestation of that. It had killed off almost the entire pantheon on its own. Oh well...wasn't that a phrase? _Those who do not know history..._ something like that.

 **"Then we should get started."**

Naruto ran forward, but Nagato was faster. The _Meifu no Ou_ rose up, swallowing him whole, but not before he spoke his parting words to the son-who-was-not.

"Let the banquet begin!"

He vanished without a trace, but in a time and place like Amegakure's current state, he couldn't be too far away. As he prepared to move out from the empty tower, however, he heard an unearthly roar that sounded horrifyingly like his own when lost in the Kyuubi's youki. A massive creature had appeared on the battlefield, its body decaying and its presence malevolent. Unable to speak, it screamed once again, its hand rushing down to shatter the earth; when that rotting hand moved upwards, a crater was left, with blood pooling from the broken corpses that had been living humans only seconds prior.

 **"Well, that seems a little unfair."**

Fortunately, Naruto was used to playing with a handicap.

* * *

"What the...first you summon us back from the dead, then the demonic rain, then the bullshit with the hole in the sky, and now...whatever the hell that thing is!" Jiraiya hissed. "Why does this bullshit keep happening? I am a man who enjoys three things: money, strong alcohol, and beautiful women. None of those things are here!"

Tsunade's punch tore through Jiraiya's torso, but the _Gama Sennin_ wasn't fazed. Seconds later, he'd completely regenerated.

"Good to see that not even death could keep you from taking my sarcasm seriously, princess."

"Is that right, Jiraiya?" Orochimaru asked.

"Of course!" He opened a flask that had been hanging on his hip, taking a long drink before putting it back. "I keep strong alcohol on my person at all times."

Tsunade's next blow was a kick that ripped Jiraiya's left leg off.

"Asshole!" She muttered.

"Look, we all know I'd have dodged both of those if I wasn't currently a reanimated corpse thanks to the Edo Tensei." Jiraiya stated.

"What about Kakashi?" Tsunade asked, changing the subject. "After you summoned him, he bolted for the battlefield. I mean, besides the fact that the three of us are here..."

"Maybe he knows something we don't. Maybe he just doesn't want to face you. I couldn't tell you one way or the other, really." Orochimaru said.

"Well, either way...all common sense is telling me to run away from that thing, further into the city. So, of course, I'm heading straight for it. Let's go!"

Jiraiya had an ulterior motive, of course. Whatever that was, he got the distinct impression that Naruto wouldn't be too far away from it; that was the way the blond worked, looking for something that could stand and fight against him.

Well, at the very least, it was proof that he was Kushina's son. That woman had loved challenges more than almost anything else in the world. Put a puzzle in front of her, and she'd solve it. Put theoreticals in play, and she'd sift her way through them to find the best answer to the problem at hand. Naruto hadn't inherited all of his Uzumaki side, but he'd taken the blueprints and run off with them. Minato, on the other hand, was a different story; filled with an innate talent for war, Minato had thrived as a ninja during the Third Great War. He'd never let it get the best of his peaceful nature, but no mediocre shinobi would have a divine epithet for their nickname.

Ironic, in the end of all things, that the demon fighting to save the world was the son of "Thor." Minato had taken it from a text on the long-dead gods of the old world, slain centuries before the Star-Walker had come to earth. Of course, that was nothing compared to his infinitely more infamous _Kiiroi Senko,_ but sometimes the best jokes required a lesser-known approach to them.

"Oh, little Ronbun Tenshi..." He muttered, legs moving him forward towards the ancient creature in the distance. "What would you think of me now?"

* * *

"Rise, my son." Nagato said, pride welling up in his heart.

The gigantic corpse could hardly move, but its restoration was far and away an improvement over its original state. When he'd first summoned the _Gedo Mazo,_ it had been nothing except ancient skin stretched over bones. With the power of five Biju inside of it, some semblance of a body had returned. All he needed were the remaining four...which was where Zetsu came in; the former human had sent clones out to duel each of the Jinchuriki on the field, sans Naruto.

Zetsu wanted _that_ man to himself. It wasn't a request that Nagato would be able to grant, particularly not with the _Gedo Mazo_ summoned. He could feel the Jinchuriki, and the former Kazekage, coming towards their demon brethren. As one, they congregated. Yugito had been driven into a controlled one-tailed cloak, while Tayuya was at two tails. Hulasikali Wala was the one to strike first, a youki-bound ball of sand blasting the Sightless Demon in the face. Yugito's burning claws raked away at its arms, and Tayuya's Suiton techniques cut into its chest.

Still, this only fueled the _Gedo Mazo_ and its restoration.

"Born in a graveyard, and adopted by sin...you grew strong. Strong enough to challenge the gods, but not to finish them off."

Its eye sockets glowed a bloody red, with ragged blond hair beginning to grow from its scalp. The demon-corpse's skin became more natural, losing its rotten texture to take on healthy hues. Blood flowed from ancient cuts that had never been allowed to heal. Amegakure's old stone roads drank that blood up greedily, the rain unable to wash it all away. To all the world that looked upon it, a truth became clear: this was a creature that they couldn't destroy.

But, then again, Naruto had never been someone who paid attention to things that other people took for facts. He came down from the sky, nine brilliant tails of unfiltered youki marking him unmistakably. With him came an aura of dread, one that even his allies shied away from; as he descended, at once faster-than-light and incomprehensibly slow, he swung his falx in a brutal overhead chop. Down, down, came the twisted abomination of a weapon. Its wicked edge was rough-cut and visceral, and it had killed more than its fair share of enemies...but this one was different.

As his weapon carved through the regenerating flesh of the _Gedo Mazo,_ Naruto understood something horrifically terrible. The Kyuubi's youki had entered into the demonic statue, as well as the last touch that was required: the holy might of a Zenton user...which was a quality that the Kyuubi _also_ possessed. The _Gedo Mazo_ turned its head skyward, eye sockets and open mouth bursting great beams of energy to tether the world to the great portal that so garishly scarred the sky.

An unearthly moan resonated from its lips, ancient lungs filling themselves with air for the first time in thousands of years. Its dust-laden heart still beat, inside its scarred and broken chest, and the Dead Demon let loose an almighty roar.

Millennia ago, its body had been warped and desecrated through the destruction of the World Tree. It had lost its sight, its life, and all those people who it had held dear. The children it had loved, the wife it had cherished...the siblings it had died for. The Sightless had defied the dead gods, setting its plan in motion to one day return.

The Eye of the Heavens had been forced open, the ancient world connected with the present day. The _Gedo Mazo_ stood on its legs, rising up into the sky to easily dwarf the Tower of Babel. Its skin now fully returned to its original color, shaggy blond hair dropping down to the middle of its back. Most telling of all, however, were the two craters that stood together on its chest. One by one, tails of malefic black youki formed to stream out behind it. When they finally stopped growing, ten tails extended from the nape of its back.

"Oh, gods." Tayuya said.

"Well, _that's_ not something you see every day." Yugito's eyes were wide.

 **"I won't lie to you, I have no way to predict what happens from this point onwards. Not after this moment."** Hulasikali Wala said, no expression showing on his face as he stared at the Juubi.

 **"Give it a moment. If I'm guessing right, which has been known to happen from time to time, this is about to get ridiculous. Like, give it about ten seconds."** Naruto replied.

"Izanagi." Danzo's voice was calm as he spoke, striding forward in his armor only to vanish, appearing behind Nagato as the Akatsuki leader's head fell from his shoulders after a single clean blow. "This battle was engineered a lifetime ago. The setting was graciously prepared, and the duty left to me almost seventy years ago will finally be completed."

The rain came down, and mist rose up as it touched the roads. Nagato's headless body fell in the street without fanfare, and Danzo bent down to pick up the Uzumaki's severed head.

"We stand at the apex of a power far greater than any of you can comprehend: the final resting place of the only man who was strong enough to kill a god. When I was a boy, he put me under his power, and at long last...I can fulfill the promise I gave to him, with the Izanagi."

Heavy steps were audible, a tall man striding forward from the mist to stand next to Danzo. Without hesitation, he took the proffered head, pulling the Rinnegan from Nagato's face and placing them back into his own empty eye sockets.

Uchiha Madara was alive and well, in the shadow of the Juubi, as he looked upon the world more than six decades after his death.


	76. The Final Battle, VI

**I'm sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out; you don't want to know how long I sat here with this thing at 2500-some words and just never feeling the motivation to write. Well, tonight, I said, "fuck having the motivation, Melkor, you're going to get it done. You're going to get it done NOW."**

 **And here I am, having gotten it done. Feels better now.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. TenorSax93: I can't say that I think Madara's return was much of a plot twist, but don't worry, there's still a few knives left for me to turn in some poor sucker's back. Just wait, I have a couple more surprises (though they may not be surprising to everyone,) when it comes to what happens next.**

 **2\. SlyUzumakiVii: I'm someone who finds that trying to write a story within a set framework isn't only foolish, but stifles creativity as well. When I wrote some of my other stories, I had a clear and concise idea of what I wanted them to look like at the beginning, middle, and end...and any of the real multi-chapter fics that I've written are unfinished, although this one's heading to a close.**

 **So, when I started writing this, I decided to take a different approach; "no expectations," I told myself, "just write whatever comes to mind." So, I wrote a story that builds its own framework around it. And here I am, slowly closing in on the end...partially because of the overwhelmingly positive response I've gotten, and because I'm not dreading having to write certain scenes, or putting off the writing because I know how it goes in my head & feel like I can't do the scene justice. Sometimes it's taken me a while, but each chapter is written with only the expectation of, "look back over it and enjoy reading what you've written."**

 **Writing is a self-indulgent form of art and self-expression for me. That so many other people _also_ enjoy my writing makes it more special. I know I put a "thank you" note in the ANs every 10 chapters, but sincerely...thank you, everybody who's read this far. I'm glad you came along for the ride, and now...**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"You were working for Madara? That makes...absolutely no sense." Tayuya said. "Even if you're a slimy son of a bitch, Konoha is everything to you, right?"

 **"Personally, I'm more concerned with the part where he decapitated Nagato in one blow. Feels awfully anti-climactic."** Naruto said.

"Guys, I really feel like we should be paying attention to the fact that Uchiha Madara is here. I just...this is really not how I imagined my day would go when I woke up this morning." Yugito groaned. "It's always _something,_ with you two. This is ridiculous."

"Yeah, well, you're ridiculous." Tayuya said. "So there."

Madara, for his part, simply stood in the rain.

"Grandmother, grandfather, it's been a long time. Or, would you prefer 'aunt and uncle,' instead?" He asked, unconcerned with the eyes upon him.

 **"Madara."** Naruto spoke the man's name like it was a curse, practically spitting as the noun left his mouth.

"So cold, grandfather? You know, it was my mother's dying wish that I bring you...the _original_ you...back to life again. As it so happens, all these millennia later, I've finally ended up succeeding. Do you have any idea what kind of logistical planning that takes? The power, the lifetimes of study? If Zetsu hadn't been there to give me back my previous life's memories, I might not have been able to do it. So, really, thank him for this."

 **"Let's just get this over with."** Naruto growled. **"I'm sick and tired of all this goddamned build-up! No more talking! FIGHT! ME!"**

He lunged, sword seeking a way to carve through Madara's armor. It was blocked by the Uchiha scion's gunbai, but the demon-possessed Uzumaki kept hacking away.

"You know, grandfather, I've never actually met you in _any_ of our lifetimes. Have you always been like this?"

The words only served to enrage Naruto further, Madara incapable of doing anything but continue to block the rapid strikes. Both of his hands were gripping his gunbai; anything less, and his guard would break. This wasn't a strategy that could work out in Madara's favor, as Naruto was incapable of tiring, and every passing second filled him with greater demonic power. Blood seeped down from his left hand, hissing with the rain when it hit the ground.

The onlookers to this spectacle were stunned. Certainly, Uzumaki Naruto was nothing short of a monstrous force on the battlefield, but to be combative enough that such a terrifying historical figure as Uchiha Madara couldn't even counter? That wasn't something you found every day. Each hacking blow he made was blocked with a marksman's precision, no true opening managing to show itself as the Hokage continued to study his foe. Madara had grown up during the Warring Clans Era, his childhood fraught with danger as he had taken to the battlefield at an age when he should have been at his mother's hip. The art of war had been etched into his bones, a perfect image of lethal force.

Then again, Naruto had never been afforded the luxury of a family, or the mercy of a stranger's kindness. He had grown up on cold and unforgiving streets, carving his way to the top of the food chain, inch by god-forsaken inch. He had killed before he understood the concept of morality, before the weight of his sins could truly settle upon him. Those who spat on him had their tongues cut out. Those who cursed them had no vocal cords with which to speak. Long before he had learned the way of the ninja, Naruto had learned that his own survival meant allowing others to die.

So he attacked, and didn't stop. Over and over, he hooked his falx around and tried to slice his fated nemesis open...but Madara's hands were too fast, with a defense too strong to strike through. Time after time, brutal swings met rapid blocks. Then, as if having gotten bored of the repetition, Madara swung into the arc of Naruto's offensive. It wasn't much, but losing a few inches of his swing was a powerful bargaining chip in battle. On the next attack, he lost more, until he relented and jumped backwards to give himself some space.

"Naruto!" Tayuya yelled, one arm wrapping around his upper back as he landed near her. "Are you okay?"

 **"I'm fine."** The demi-demon replied, youki and chakra flaring out from his body.

"Your hand is still-"

 **"I'm fine!"** He jerked his left hand away from her reach, and pretended to ignore the pain on her face.

A promise he'd made to himself, that he would never allow her to feel that agony again. A promise he'd failed to keep, even now, at the end of days. What was he fighting for, if not her? So long ago, Tsunade had ordered him to stay by her side. They had always been close, even on separate wavelengths; their placements in their own lives weren't always on track with the other's mental perceptions. She had thrown herself in the way of his execution and nearly died for the trouble, leaving no doubt as to her view of him or his role in her life.

But what had he done? All that time together, their training, long nights and hard days...the torturous months he'd suffered while in Orochimaru's hands. What had he done for her that came even _remotely_ close to that devotion? To say that he was fighting for her wouldn't just be selfish, it would be wrong. Somewhere along the way, he'd lost sight of what it meant to love and be loved.

He fought to kill. He fought to win. He fought for no other reason than there was a fight to be had. He fought because it was what he had been trained for, what he had been bred for. He fought because it was what he was compelled to do. It was his purpose, no matter whether that was engineered or circumstance.

He fought because he was Uzumaki Naruto. He existed to kill. He was born to end lives. Self-hatred rose in his mind at that minuscule revelation, but pain had only ever made him stronger. With his sword in his hand, and the wind on his side, it was impossible to lose...wasn't it?

Wasn't it?

"You're a real piece of work, piss-for-brains, you know that?" Tayuya muttered. "Doesn't make me love you any less, though."

 **"Please save it for after the battle."** Naruto said before rushing back into a melee with Madara. This time, he only used the right hand to swing his falx, while the left made single-handed seals.

The only warning Madara got was the feeling of a malignant chakra before he was forced to dodge the _Bijudama_ that Naruto had launched from his left hand. Its explosion, a few feet after where it was supposed to connect, rocked the landscape.

 **"Motherfucker."**

"A little hostile, don't you think? Are you just giving me this treatment to hide your adoration for your eldest grandson? Or...no, this has to do with my feud against Hashirama, doesn't it? What names would you know us by best? Indra and Asura? Setanta and Fernand? Elan Morin and Lews Therin? You can have your choice, grandfather. The core of my disagreement with my time-lost brother was whether or not the Juubi should be revived. I wanted to bring back your original body, disrupt the Pattern, and kill the last of the gods you gave your life to trap on this earth. Hashirama believed that it was better to leave the rule of man to men, and the places of gods, to the gods."

Madara paused to breathe, grateful that Naruto hadn't continued attacking.

"Hashirama wanted to move forward, told me that I was stuck in the past. We came together, created Konoha and forged an end to the Clan Wars...but when Zetsu showed me the secrets of my past lives, I couldn't stay any longer. I left the village and I began hunting Antal Dara down. I tracked him from Iwagakure to Uzushio, around the seas and to the places in the far west where desert sands turn to beaches, running north to the tundra. And then...I killed him. I cut him in half, my Rinnegan on par with my mother's. Do you think he found the irony in the fact that his own gift to mankind ended up killing him?"

Naruto, Tayuya, and the others present, all shared a series of uncertain looks with one another; this wasn't how any of them had pictured Uchiha Madara. He just talked, and talked...where was the terror he inspired? Where was the bloodshed?

"Wait a minute." Tayuya said. "If you're so innocent in all of this, why does every sign point to the idea that you and Naruto are meant to be each other's arch-nemeses? If Hashirama was the one chosen by the Rikudo Sennin, you're the one who was chosen by the gods, and Naruto isn't just a Jinchuriki. He's practically a full-fledged demon now."

"You're also the man who's infamous for betraying his nation and killing the Shodaime Hokage. You'll forgive our skepticism." Yugito added.

"Kill Hashirama? No, I never did that. He's the one who killed me at the Valley of the End! If I hadn't thought ahead and pre-programmed my Mangekyou to cast the Izanagi, that would have been the end of me."

 **"Uchiha Madara, the gods' most favored son, on the side of the demon they despised more than all the rest? Unbelievable."** Hulasikali Wala said.

"The Shodaime Hokage never returned from the battle at the Valley of the End. If you didn't kill him, then who-"

Danzo didn't finish his sentence, an ancient cry coming forth from other worlds than these. The Star-Dreamer, who had lain in deep slumber at his seat upon the Heavenly Throne for generations, was waking. He shouted down upon the world of men with bile and fury in his heart, coming forth in tattered glory as the Juubi fought to restrain his passage. The ancient land had been bleak and twisted, war-torn and lacking any hope for mankind. When the Star-Dreamer had come, that was what he had found; he had needed an extension of his will to guide them, and thus the Crawling Chaos was born into the lives of men.

He had needed an avatar by which he could return to the world of the living after his death at Kurama's hands. Its dimensional existence was beyond the strength that the Kyuubi had possessed, its physical death assured at the cost of its essence's survival. It was almost enough.

Almost.

One by one, some of the surviving ninja began to gather with Naruto. Itachi and Izumi stood behind the young Hokage, while the three Sannin who had returned from death were farther off. Rei and Kouga came forward from the shadows, having followed their time-lost father in secret. Many of the former Rookie Twelve had moved through the city, though a few of them were absent. Naruto hoped against the odds that his friends were all still alive.

"So what now?" Tenten asked. She wanted to be shocked at the appearance of Uchiha Madara, or the Sannin, or even the fact that the Juubi looked like a massive version of Naruto with ten tails.

She had, however, grown up with Naruto, and knew the first rule of life with him: absolutely nothing was out of the question when it came to her big brother. He was a serial murderer as a child? Objectively tame. He had a demon sealed inside of his guts? Explained a lot about his hair-trigger temper. He killed the Yondaime Mizukage? Par for the course. Uchiha Madara was his fated arch-enemy despite the better part of a century separating their births? Might as well happen.

An eldritch monstrosity who had outlived all of mankind's history, before and after the Age of Gods, was being brought back to life and would fight Naruto's original self? Twin children from a past life? She'd shoved a sword through his gut, run him through with a spear, and had watched him rip an axe out from the back of his head. Nothing could faze her at this point.

* * *

"Hyoton: Chiyari!" Haku shouted, the Thousand Spears blocking Sasori from delivering a killing blow to Kankuro.

"One of the Kiri oinin, eh? Normally you keep to your own renegades, but...hm. Hyoton? I doubt a Yukigakure ninja would turn on the alliance they made with Pein-sama, which means you're Zabuza's student. The Aburame clan head, Rasa's eldest children? A motley crew at best. What do you think you have that allows you to go against me?"

There was no disdain in Sasori's voice, it was an honest question; he'd given up underestimating his enemies or their abilities when he gave up his human form. As far as he could tell, there was nothing they had in their arsenal which could match his own techniques. Every specialization had its weak points, and while Sasori had his own, he'd erased most of the ones that were common for puppeteers.

"We have a puppeteer, an assassin, an army of insects, and Temari. The burden of proof rests on your shoulders." Shino said, his declaration met with silence.

If he'd still had a living brain to process humor, Sasori would have laughed. These children hadn't been there when he'd sacked Iwagakure and razed it to the ground.

"There's some ridiculous things going on in the world right now." Sasori commented, his knife-cable flicking up towards the gaping hole in the sky. "I don't know about you, but that gigantic demon over there looks worrisome to me. Not that Pein ever let me in on his true intentions, but this wasn't part of the plan."

"Attempting to murder the former prince of a deceased hidden village wasn't, either, I'm guessing?" Haku asked.

"When you live through two wars, and a third is coming, you learn to avoid surprises...particularly as a spymaster. Especially with a jutsu that makes your informants unaware that they're leaking intelligence to you. There's no way I could have ascertained that Sabaku no Kankuro and I would fight today, but I knew he was on this battlefield. Do you understand the theory behind clumping large groups of ninja together in war-zones?"

"Overwhelming numbers can extract a victory where the raw skill of a handful of shinobi will fall short." Kankuro answered.

"No...it gives the enemy a target. And then, while that target is being attacked, individuals or smaller squads can move around the war zone undetected. When opposing sides find each other in this situation, the battles are far more catastrophic...but rejoice before you die, children. Your Hokage didn't consider you expendable."

One by one, and yet all at once, Sasori summoned a hundred puppets. Nearly invisible, thousands of strings of chakra extended out from all parts of the puppet-man's body.

"With this technique, I single-handedly destroyed Tsukigakure no Sato. Four children aren't even a challenge."

There were some things, though, that were outside of Sasori's predictions.

"Ni-En Senpuu!" Rock Lee roared, Neji at his side as they tore through many of Sasori's puppets with the Twin Inferno Hurricane.

Lee's _tenketsu_ were deformed, but in his current state, chakra flowed through him like water through a dam that had ruptured. Not just chakra, either; there was something sinister about him, some malfeasance created inside his body by powers beyond his control. On his way back to Kankuro, he'd passed Neji's unconscious form, and been beyond thankful that his teammate was alive.

Too many people had died today. Too many people had sacrificed their lives in the name of a war that they, personally, gained nothing from. It was a ninja's job to follow the will of their Kage, and the alliance of the remaining major villages was fighting for a simple thing: revenge for their fallen. Revenge for the obliteration of Kumogakure, the destruction of Iwagakure, the sacking of Sunagakure...for the injustices that the Akatsuki had wreaked upon Kirigakure, and for the annihilation of Konoha. It was no question that death was around every corner for ninja, but to be slaughtered in their own home, when they hadn't made aggressions against their assailants?

"Keimon, open. Kyoumon, open." The air around Lee glowed a deep red, reminiscent of Naruto while in the first stage of his Biju cloak. Plastered across his face was such an almighty rage that nothing in the depths of Sasori's living could comprehend it, plainspoken and clear as day.

"Hyoton: Makyou Hyoushou!" Haku called out the name of his attack, a dome of ice chilling the area around them and containing Sasori's puppets.

"Mirrors, made of ice. Interesting." Sasori noted. "To avoid revealing your whereabouts to your enemy, appearing in many places at once, while your own comrades act as bait? A dangerous ploy."

"The only person in any danger here is you." Haku retorted. "All this time, ever since the civil war in Kiri ended, I've sat back and done nothing. Naruto keeps stealing the show. I'm glad for him, I really am, but...he takes away the need for war, takes away my usefulness. I was raised as a tool, to be applied where I was needed."

"No matter what the outcome of this war is, it's going to be the last one. Pein-sama, the Hokage...they'll make sure of that, one way or another."

Neither ninja attacked, equally confident enough in their abilities. The stalemate was something of an anomaly, but a welcome one.

"I was raised as a monster, my talents kept hidden from my family. I was trained by a demon, molded into a person who could kill effortlessly. If you're right, and this is going to be the final war, then I may as well prove my usefulness in full. I am Momochi Haku, the Nidaime Kirigakure no Oni, and this hall of mirrors will be your tomb."

A demon's tears slipped through the empty spaces between Haku's mirrors of ice, rain continuing to fall on the broken streets of Amegakure.

Sasori stared his foes down in silence, opting instead to wait for the first blow to come.


	77. The Final Battle, VII

**And here you have it, folks. Another chapter in the story that refuses to lay down and die! We're close to the endgame here, folks. Strings are slowly tying themselves up, blood is being shed, I bought the Handsome Collection for PS4 and _totally_ haven't been ignoring all of my responsibilities to replay Borderlands 2 and rebuild my OP8 melee Zer0.**

 **"But Melkor," you say, "sniper-build Zer0 is much safer for the player and their teammates, as well as much more viable for raid bosses thanks to the special effects of a Bee shield with sniper rifles like the Trespasser and the Pimpernel."**

 **"But anon," I reply, "I can oneshot almost every boss in the entire game on UVHM difficulty, even at OP8. Also, c** **ritical melee kills are a hell of a drug."**

 **...moving on. Review response time!**

 **1\. CygnusFang: Glad you found me again, and it's good to have you back! Stick with me to the finish line, because even though I write whatever comes to mind, you bet your sweet ass this one'll be a doozy.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

Collapsed on top of Kisame's corpse, alone on this battlefield save for the broken bodies that once held life, Zabuza screamed. There was something inside of him, some foul-natured creature far beyond his kenning. tapering appendages stood out from the skin of his arms, writhing without breaking free. It felt like some voracious hunger was gnawing away at his heart and soul, carving its way through his insides. Internal bleeding found its way up to his throat, and each new pained cry spattered Kisame's motionless form with dark blood. Zabuza clawed at his own throat, tearing away his armor-tape as if under the impression it would allow him to breathe more easily.

This was the most excruciating pain he'd ever felt in his life. He'd withstood torture, war, near-death, starvation, and every other kind of suffering imaginable; even so, this felt worse than all of them combined. The sinewy tentacles taking shape inside his body took stronger forms, bulging from his muscled body as the agony of his torment increased. The _Kiri no Oni's_ eyes were wide and bloodshot, preparing to embrace death. What _was_ this? Some kind of long-lost technique? Ninjutsu, Genjutsu? Whatever it was, Zabuza hated it. More than that, though, he hated himself.

With each passing second, the existence inside of him grew stronger. It fed upon his chakra, as well as his flesh. With the dread of creeping doom, it crawled within Zabuza's skin while redoubling its efforts to escape. The pressure first caused blood to begin leaking from the cracks around his fingernails, but soon enough, it was dripping out from every orifice Zabuza had. Tears of blood, he cried, and lines of dried blood blackened after having left his mouth. The dried blood cracked, and his skin cracked with it, revealing his muscles and bones to the world. Blood continued to fall, and as it dried upon his arms, the cycle repeated...but this time, when his arms ruptured open, tentacles sprouted from them.

His voice had been reduced to unintelligible babbling, the once-stoic cynic now gazing out upon the wreckage of his damned world with wide and fearful eyes. For the time being, however, he was still conscious. Still sane.

For now.

What most concerned Zabuza, at the moment, was the fact that nobody else in this area had survived to witness the brutality of what he could only assume to be his death. As more of his blood dried upon his own body, he split further open, his throat now irreparably ruptured open. Even if Tsunade had been alive, he knew, not even she would have been able to save him. Gathering what remaining strength he possessed, Zabuza turned his treasured blade in his hands. Positioning the massive blade in front of his chest, he prepared himself for suicide; it was the only thing that could make this pain stop before it killed him.

He never got the chance, as the tentacles protruding from his arms wrapped around his wrists and broke his forearms in swift, bone-crushing wrenches. Still, Zabuza was an order of magnitude over the power of normal men, and he kept his hands in place before falling forward. As those alien tentacles shoved the _Kubikiri Houchou_ out of the way of lethality, instead allowing the blade to cut through his right clavicle, Zabuza felt an enormous pressure rise up from his ribs, between his lungs. Moments later, he received the death that he'd wished for, as an ancient horror cracked open his chest and stole his remaining life force.

As life left his broken body, his final thoughts were of Haku.

 _One day we will meet,_

 _In a world of kind faces._

 _I dream, until then._

* * *

Haku's needles flew through the air, real senbon whizzing by Sasori's puppets with the _Suishouha._ Each one was merely a glancing blow, with none of them striking Sasori, but that was alright. For the moment, Haku had played his part. Lee was ferocious, clad in his once-green jumpsuit now coated in cracked and drying blood. Pain coursed through his body, side by side with the strength that fueled him, a reminder of the price of his rage.

Sasori had fought ninja, he had fought animals. He had fought platoons, regiments, and even entire armies. He had fought an entire nation, and won...but he had never fought a demon, and he had no idea what it meant for a human to be given the gift of a demon's power. Lee's inhuman strength tore through one of Sasori's hundred puppets, and then another. Was this the moment he had been born for? Was this the reason why the gods had taken everything from him, so that he could strike down the foe before him in revenge?

Neji moved with his best friend, their strikes tailored to rhythmic precision. Metal bent before them, wood splintering under their hands. That was when he saw it: the tube in Sasori's chest, his chakra core, glowing brilliantly in comparison to the thin threads of chakra that wove through the puppeteer's body and tools.

"Scorpion." He said quietly, hoping that Haku understood. The kanji was written in red ink, stained onto Sasori's undying body, and yet as mundane as a tattoo on any other person. The Hyoton user did nothing, waiting patiently for his best opportunity to strike.

Temari's war fan shielded herself and her brother, shining ichor and oils running down its front in place of the blood that would have sprayed from human foes.

"Are you okay, Kankuro? Did he hit you?"

"Just...exhausted. Held out long enough for you to get to me." The second of the Suna siblings replied, his breathing labored as he rested next to his fallen puppets. One arm was placed on top of his chest, while the other rested across his abdomen. "Didn't...didn't think I'd live to see you again, sis. My puppets moved on their own, almost."

"What do you mean, _'moved on their-_ '" Temari finally realized exactly which puppets Kankuro had been using.

She didn't even know that was possible. Turning human bodies into puppets to use for his techniques? If that was something Kankuro was capable of, then it meant that most, if not all, of Sasori's puppets were made in a similar fashion.

"We're going to talk about this. Later. After I get you out of here." She said.

"Mhm...sure." Kankuro grinned weakly, not believing it for a second.

For just a moment, as the bright light in the sky radiated against Temari's skin, Kankuro could have sworn that his older sister was crying as she faced the onslaught that Sasori brought to bear against them. For a brief moment, the war-goddess he'd grown up with seemed vulnerable. It was the little things, the way her eyes and her nostrils seemed to flare. The tightness of her grip on his shoulder, as if to steady herself. The sharp intake of her breathing, her four ponytails twitching with movements that only a ninja's practiced eyes would notice.

Then he reconciled himself to his senses; clearly, he was too tired, and it was just the rain running down her face. Temari, worried about him? No, Gaara had always been the one she was more attached to, even when they were younger and it had been necessary to walk on eggshells around him. She'd always ignored Kankuro, knowing that he could look out for himself in all the ways that Gaara couldn't...because in Suna, where money was scarce and resourcefulness was required to survive daily life, self-reliance was the one thing that mattered.

 _Why would she cry for the less-favored brother?_

A second war fan appeared in Temari's hand, her back straightening as she stood behind Lee and Neji. There was a new edge to her form, and in the deserts of her homeland, the wild wind began to blow.

"Kamaitachi." She swung her fan down in a straight line, the wind blade ripping through the air and tearing more than one puppet in half. The most unfortunate one, which had been coming straight at her, was reduced to a pile of scrap metal and springs. She looked away from its singular unbroken eye, staring up at her, and tried to avoid thinking about the idea that it had once been a human body.

 _Nobody_ would hurt her little brothers and get away with it.

"So the vaunted princess of the sands will fight as well." Sasori noted, preparing himself. As his mechanical mind raced, he thought up everything that was likely to happen now that Temari was going to be active in the battle.

He couldn't have prepared himself for what came next.

"Futon: Jishin."

Lee and Neji both sprang away as Temari swung her fan again, the wind strong enough to rip up the stone, metal, and earth beneath their feet as her attack cut its way to Sasori. The puppeteer's body was cracked to pieces, but the core of his chakra survived for long enough to be transferred to a new body.

Neji's Byakugan was something that Sasori couldn't hide from, but he wasn't someone that could fight at range.

"Target the cylinder with kanji written on it. Destroy it, and he won't be able to switch bodies anymore. That's your job, Haku." Neji said.

The mirrors of ice around the gathered ninja broke, shredding themselves into long shards that raced forward and tore through Sasori's puppets. Each one ripped into a different puppet, piercing their chests and then exploding under the strain of retaining their unnatural chill. One ruptured the core that contained Sasori's life, piercing through his chakra as well as his knowledge and his memories. Sasori looked down, still alive enough to register that his death was imminent, and closed his eyes.

He left the land of the living, such as he was, to rejoin the parents and grandparents who had left him. In the land of death, he was free to be a boy again, and bask in their love. In the world of the dead, there was no hatred for his country or his village.

"What a crazy rat bastard he was, huh?" Kankuro said with a faint grin. "Hey, if you don't mind, I'm just gonna...take a nap. Just for a little while. Wake me up when the fun starts."

The hand on his gut fell away as Kankuro lost consciousness, and his friends' eyes widened when they saw the hole he'd been hiding from them.

"Kankuro, you son of a bitch!" Temari shouted, but her brother's eyes were closed.

 _"My puppets moved on their own, **almost.** " _He'd said. He'd run out of chakra, lost his chakra strings, and any fool could pretend that help was coming when he knew it wouldn't save him. Even if it was only by a few seconds, they'd arrived too late.

"I'll treat him. The rest of you go on ahead." Haku said. "Once I get him stable, I'll take him back to the medics and Sakura can help me make sure there's as little lasting damage as possible."

"I can't just leave him! He's my brother, he needs-"

"He needs my help. _You_ need to focus on the task at hand." Haku's voice took an edge that those gathered were unaccustomed to; they had never been his enemies.

"I will stay behind as well. My _kikaichu_ are already working to draw out whatever poison remains in his body, and then we only have to worry about healing the physical wound." Shino said.

"Naruto needs us more than anyone else does, at the moment. We should make our way to him." Neji said.

"But how do we know where he is?" Lee asked.

Temari was dumbfounded, momentarily forgetting all about her brother's motionless body on the ground beside her.

"You mean to tell me," she began, "that you grew up with Naruto, fought with him and for him, and you don't think he's going to be wherever the most ridiculous and unexplained bullshit is happening? Do you _see_ that gigantic demon? There's no possible way he's not right there. We're going."

She looked back at Haku, leaving the Kiri-nin with an unspoken, _if you can't save him,_ as she began to _shunshin_ towards the epicenter of the damaged city. Neji and Lee followed after her, and Haku dropped his head into his hands as he mourned the near-impossible nature of his task.

* * *

All was not well as Naruto and Madara stood apart from one another, though the latter shinobi was calm and relaxed. In comparison to Naruto's openly murderous stare, the infamous traitor seemed almost rational. Above them the Juubi howled, impatiently waiting for the inevitable return of the god it had sealed away for thousands of years. The Star-Dreamer's vengeance was finally at hand, there was no chance it would simply be allowed to pass by.

"Otou-san, allow us." A small voice asked of Naruto.

Rei and Kouga slinked forward, older and stronger than the last time they'd been to war on a battlefield.

"You've kept us training, over and over, for years now. We may not win, but...I want to show you what we can do." Rei grinned, red hair of her heritage flowing down to the ends of her shoulder blades.

Kouga, on the other hand, kept his hair cropped short enough to spike. Even now, they were polar opposites. Her long sleeves contrasted with his short sleeves, her Raiton nature to his Katon nature, her time-lost future as the Rikudou Sennin and his as...whatever Zetsu was. To the onlookers, there was even a difference in their eyes; Rei's swirling three-tomoe Sharingan looked forward without fear, and Kouga's eyes had long ago transformed into an icy blue-tinted Byakugan.

 **"Are you sure about this?"** Naruto asked. **"You don't have to show off for my sake."**

"This isn't for you, father!" Kouga said indignantly. "It's for our _beloved cousin._ "

There was cold fury in those words, generations of pain wrapped up in two short sentences.

"I did what I had to do." Madara said cryptically. "If you had stayed in that place, in that time, you wouldn't have been where you needed to be now...you'd have died on some unnamed battlefield. Or, worse, you'd have died with the rest of your clan as an elderly pair who couldn't fight anymore. You lived because of me!"

"So you expect us to thank you for tearing us away from our parents, our friends, our family?" Rei's glare was malefic.

"I expect you to thank me for thinking of your safety!"

A grown man, getting into a hissy-fit contest with a thirteen-year-old girl. Only so many things could possibly go wrong before even Naruto would find disbelief in his heart. Was war always this ridiculous?

 _Yes,_ came the conclusion in Naruto's mind. _Yes it is._ The rest of those present were entirely lost, though some of them were aware of Rei and Kouga's nature as Naruto's time-lost children from the past.

"And who told you what was safe for us?" Kouga asked, ready to attack at any moment.

"Funny you should mention that." Madara replied. "You told me yourself. Rather, your original self told me. He calls himself Zetsu now, but your blood is his, and vice versa. Strange man, that one...well, if you can even call him a man at this point."

"Always taking matters into his own hands and meddling where he doesn't belong...it's our cousin, alright. I'd recognize that smug self-assurance _anywhere._ "

The twins looked to one another, nodding in sync. Their hands weaved into opposing seals, working through them with the practiced efficiency of ninja twice their age. In a haze of chakra that was thick enough to blind Naruto's awareness of his surroundings in Sage Mode, a horizontal tornado of flames swirled outward. From within its epicenter, a little ahead of the children and anchored between them, six bolts of lightning cracked through the air; Madara dodged half of them, and blocked the other three with his gunbai. Next, however, came the technique's finishing blow. Naruto and Tayuya remembered that day in Uzushio, stunned by the strength of the pressure-jet, and ten razor-thin strips of water swung in an attempt to turn the Uchiha patriarch into steaks. He avoided them with a _kawarimi,_ and the liquid blades kept moving.

In the distance, a lacerated building crumbled to the ground in straight-cut pieces.

"That was good." Madara said, a little to the left of where he'd previously been. "But since everyone is so intent on attacking me, I guess it's my turn. Zenton-"

He didn't get to finish that sentence, a mottled green arm forcing him to interrupt his own jutsu. Slowly growing in height, clothes that some onlookers recognized for Zabuza's were all that was left. He'd been consumed by a presence beyond the world they understood. Ten feet tall and counting, a beard of tentacles descended from the Rl'yehan's face. Deep Ones, illithids...they were all tales spawned from a single entity, the Star-Dreamer who had given the gods their strength in an age long gone. Now, in the body it had stolen for itself, it had returned to life in a time far in the future.

"Okay. Of all the bullshit things that have happened today, I'm just going to take a second and declare that _this_ is the most flagrantly asinine bullshit I've seen all day. No...in my entire _life,_ I've never seen something this horrendously fucked-up." Tayuya breathed a sharp growl, her horror mixed with irritation.

 _"Nyarlathotep..."_ It called the name of its servant, and a billowing cloud of darkness was dredged up from the depths of a dimension mankind would never reach or understand.

The Crawling Chaos had served mankind for a time, though it pledged them no loyalty; that was the very nature of chaos, after all. A capricious entity was never one to be trusted, and now it had turned against the ones for whom it had played the part of a servant. The Blind Ape of Truth held no love for humanity, though it had walked among them for thousands of years and understood them better than any of the gods ever could.

Without lungs, the Watcher in the Dark continued to breathe. With no face, it gazed upon the masses gathered before it. The world had been left to the Biju demons, without the influence of any divinities, for a little more than a century...but that had ended, here and now.

Today, the old gods lived again.


	78. The Final Battle, VIII

**Hello, everybody! It took me a while to finally get going and make this chapter workable, and I apologize for that, but I also gave you and extra 200 words or so than normal...so don't complain too much. The ending was fun to write. Also, when you get there: no, I didn't make a typo. That does say, "inanity."**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. Destructonite: I'm glad you're enjoying this turn I've taken. Hopefully, you'll enjoy the twist I took here...not that it's much of a logical stretch, but, y'know, it's fun to play around with characters.**

 **2\. Windwolf: You know, that's a pretty accurate description. Also, sorry for not getting this out faster. Life happens, I can't please everyone...but it makes me happy that I can bring that kind of a reaction to people.**

 **3\. desdelor97: I enjoy playing with "universal mechanics," so to speak. It's fun to create a mythos out of nothing, even if I _am_ stealing parts of it without shame.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

 **"As fun as our playtime has been,** we really should be going. **Father is waiting,** and we would hate to disappoint him."

Zetsu disengaged from Itachi and Izumi, at least a dozen of its pale clones mobbing the Uchiha lovers while Zetsu raced against time. Thousands of years of preparation, and the clock was winding down into its final seconds; to hell with Antal Dara, to hell with the Star-Dreamer, and all of the other gods with them. This was _his_ moment! The scar in the sky, what had once been the gate to the Heavenly Throne, was a blight upon his world. It was a reminder of the Juubi's sacrifice, that a father had chosen to abandon his children in some inane quest for vengeance. He would rip the life from them all!

Starting, of course, with the father-who-was-not. The demon inside of him would be pulled free, Madara would entrap it with his Genjutsu, and then the wholesale slaughter could begin; it was going to be one that would end this cycle and bring about the birth of a new world.

Hate and anger had fueled Zetsu for millennia, years that he had long since forgotten on his quest for vengeance against his deceased father. Indra, Elan, Madara...the boy had gone through many names, but he was always the one who was willing to listen. He was always the one whose judgement could be coaxed into aggression. In the last cycle, it hadn't even been difficult! In their current one, however, Asura's soul had won out. Naruto had prevented Sasuke's departure and the growth of his hatred. It irked Zetsu, but hiccups happened in every plan; the trick was making sure that those problems didn't destroy his years of plotting.

He didn't expect to encounter Orochimaru, or the other Sannin.

"It's been a while, Kouga." Orochimaru grinned, raw malice evident on his face. "Wouldn't you rather stay and catch up with us?"

"I have no time **for your idle games,** Orochimaru. I have a Hokage to murder, **a father to murder,** a god to murder, **two armies to murder...** I'm afraid I'm overbooked. Come back some other day, **and we can drink together then."**

"That would be so _dull,_ though." Orochimaru said. "I'd much rather enjoy your company now, while you're not tied up with all of that killing. Especially since that's a direct threat against my son, my greatest pupil, and the man responsible for allowing me to achieve immortality. You didn't really think Nagato could kill me, did you? I was halfway to godhood by the time I met him for the first time, let alone the second. Tell me, Kouga, do you really think you can defeat the power of eternity? Even you will tire, eventually."

"A problem we don't have anymore. I made my fair share of mistakes with Naruto, and we weren't always on the best terms, but he's still my godson. Think you've got what it takes to beat me?" Jiraiya stood more than a full head taller than either of his teammates, a dark look on his face. He was practically _begging_ for Zetsu to make a move to pass him.

 _"Nyarlathotep..."_ A voice called out from beyond the echoes of darkness.

That single name, a word of power that Zetsu couldn't deny. It reached out to him, wrapped him in its tones, and pulled him ever closer towards the widening gyre of the inane. Or, perhaps, further inside of it; he had been past the brink of calculated insanity for quite some time. That was the price he had paid for his power, something that surpassed his father's demonic strength and his sister's vaunted Rinnegan. Madness beyond the reckoning of eons, in exchange for an immortal life. He was one with the flora of the world, he had seeded the broken land with his own two hands. That was the gift he had been given by the Star-Dreamer.

As a groan rose from his throat, Zetsu was _pulled._ He warped through time and space, internally sickened by the unnatural force that did far more than compel him to action. That was the other side-effect of his holy gift: he was little more than a servant to the Star-Dreamer's wills and whims. Still, he reconciled to himself, it was a small price to pay. After all, their goals aligned: the death of the Juubi, the first Naruto.

Appearing in the space between the Star-Dreamer and the Crawling Chaos, Zetsu barely contained his scream as his dark half was ripped away and rejoined its originator; Nyarlathotep absorbed its long-lost strength, and Zetsu felt his own power coming back. He had relied on the god-hand's might for several centuries, after it had suppressed his techniques, and now stood prepared to wage his millennia-long war once again.

He would shred their flesh, spoil their blood, and rip the hearts from their chests. He would crack their bones.

He would savor the marrow.

"Uncle." Madara said with something akin to reverence.

Zetsu ignored the Uchiha, focusing instead on the children in front of him.

"As powerful and beautiful as the storms that birthed us." He said, before his eyes moved from Rei to Kouga. "And the young scion of the damned. You and I, boy, are one and the same."

And now, Zetsu looked the part. With his gifted power returned to Nyarlathotep, his body was its original human form; the deep-red hair of his Uzumaki heritage was cut short, but their eyes were the same blue, and despite the difference in their ages, it wasn't hard to see how Kouga could grow into the body Zetsu held.

The Star-Dreamer ran forward with abandon, sweeping past both Zetsu and Madara as it hunted whatever it could. Its mottled grey-green flesh looked rubbery and diseased, claws extending from where fingernails had once capped Zabuza's extremities. It was still growing, and it bowled towards its foes in its hunger. Chouji grew in size to match it, one Akimichi-sized hand slapping the god-beast to the cracked stones beneath their feet.

"And this is how it begins." Madara said. "Well, I've already killed one god...let's-"

His sentence would go unfinished, a sprawling seal appearing on the backs of his hands as it crawled up and around his body. Slowly but surely, all of Zetsu's millennia-long tending to his elder nephew had paid off; events that had been kept from him each time he regained his memories were released. His jealousy at Lews Therin for marrying the woman they both loved. His anger at their mother for appointing Asura her successor. His grief when forced to war against Setanta, his brother-in-arms. When his brothers had been killed by the Senju, and his disgust with Hashirama for allowing their lives to be the end of the blood feud.

"Hard to imagine that my grandfather and my brother reincarnated into the same man." His voice was darker now, with an edge to it that was all his own.

 **"I'm sure the words coming out of your mouth would make sense if I cared."** Naruto replied. **"Wait your fucking turn."**

Naruto threw two kunai, one high and one low; jumping forward, he used a _kawarimi_ to swap places with one of his transformed clones. As his unfortunate copy was dispelled by the Star-Dreamer's attack, his demonic power bled into the full-force punch he delivered. He could feel the divine avatar's teeth break under the power of the blow, blood coming down from the corpse-walker's mouth. He then used another _kawarimi_ to vanish, appearing behind the god once again. This time, a _Rasengan_ fueled by Kurama's youki slammed into the Star-Dreamer's face and began to grind into it.

Above, his past and future self screamed its violent death wish, the Juubi's fury palpable for miles around it. In Zetsu's hands appeared his only weapons, ancient gauntlets that were designed to shred flesh and bone alike. His younger self hadn't discovered how to form the edged ridges in such a way that they could dice armor like paper...an oversight that Zetsu hadn't been able to overlook. In his youth, armor hadn't just been commonplace for warriors; it was practically mandatory to avoid a painful death. In the current age, Ninjutsu's prevalence had rendered armor ineffective, but Zetsu's gauntlets could glide through any samurai who approached him.

"This is the most troublesome bullshit I've ever had to deal with in my entire troublesome life." Shikamaru groaned. "Even more than the other guys' bullshit back in the academy. I don't know if you can hear me, but you were Suigetsu, right?"

Hands in his pockets, with his head hanging low, the Nara head seemed to slink forward with neither effort nor worry. There was a dangerous look in his eyes, his brain working itself into overdrive.

"Lightning." Shikamaru commanded, and Suigetsu answered the call.

To Shikamaru, the bright bolt of electricity almost moved in slow motion. As it hit the ground and traveled back to the sky in a flash of light, he had immobilized Madara, Nyarlathotep, Zetsu, and the Star-Dreamer. He wouldn't be able to keep it up for too long, but the time had come to pull out all of the stops. Shikamaru was the kind of man who worked with facts and numbers rather than ideals and questions; he hated gambling. As a strategist, he had learned not to pick battles he couldn't win.

"Time to solve an old problem, once and for all." He grinned.

Danzo felt a venomous presence well up behind him, but found to his alarm that he couldn't move. Had Shikamaru's assault on their enemies been a front? That was a ridiculous notion, but as his eyes focused on the dark line that stretched between his body and Shikamaru, he understood that he'd finally met the fate that befell his father before him.

"This is for my husband." Uzumaki Oboro hissed before a razor-thin crescent of water cleaved through Danzo's neck.

Shikamaru's chokehold on his enemies' movement broke, and Zetsu moved to take a swing at Oboro. She dodged effortlessly, raising an eyebrow. Her time-lost great-grandson shrugged his shoulders, as if to say, _this isn't how it has to be, but it's how it is._ She understood that much; she'd lived through more than one war.

"You know, great-grandmother, this is the first time I've met you. I hope you can forgive this old man for his impertinence." Zetsu chuckled.

Chakra gathered in Oboro's hands, a fang-bladed ou-naginata shaping itself in her grasp. Her grandfather, who had died in the Warring Clans Era, had fought alongside the Jie; she had no war-veil, but she had danced with the shadows for her entire life.

 _Wash the spears..._

Her weapon of choice was normally kept from women, the ko-naginata a smaller, lighter choice that allowed for much faster swings than its heavier brethren. Oboro, however, had steeled herself at a young age. Even now, decades after she had last brought it to bear, the great two-handed spear almost seemed like air in her grasp. Zetsu's eyes widened a little bit at the ease with which she spun the ou-naginata, but hardened his resolve. He had lived since a time that no other mortal could remember; one woman couldn't change that.

He ran forward, intent on taking his bladed gauntlet and ending the battle with a swift right hook, but Oboro was still in the physical prime of her life. Faster than he could have predicted, she shifted backwards and wedged her spear's blade in the gaps between his gauntlet's plates, flexing the pole and breaking the metal glove open. Pulling back, she hooked into Zetsu's hand and tore through the muscle, making him groan in pain.

Even so, the skin and bone began to meld back together, fusing into an unbroken state. Once Zetsu's hand had completely healed again, chakra surrounded it and returned his gauntlet to perfect working condition. When the glow subsided, and Zetsu stood unharmed, he looked blankly at his chosen enemy.

"As much as I despise him for the way he left us, being the son of the Juubi has some...interesting consequences." He said. "Something that almost none of my reborn selves can match. The two of them in her belly now are carbon copies of my sister and I, but that boy on the field? He will never be anywhere near the scope of my power."

"You're not fighting him." Oboro reminded her time-lost great-grandson. "You're fighting me."

The rage of war burned in her eyes, a promise of bloodshed laying in wait.

* * *

The Dragonslayer tore through the air in front of Tenten as she heaved it at the Star-Dreamer. It extended one long, rubbery arm, and she was telekinetically frozen mid-swing before being pushed backwards. Chouji leaped over his friend, and as he struck the god's head, it refused to give way. Still, its lack of movement provided the perfect opportunity for Shikamaru, who placed the Star-Dreamer in a much stronger _Kagemane_ that his other teammate could take advantage of.

"Here goes nothing." Ino said, making her hand signs.

The _Shintenshin_ was a success, Ino's consciousness leaving her own body and entering into the Star-Dreamer. Her mistake was some belief that a god, particularly something so twisted as to have not been born upon her own planet, would have a mind and consciousness that functioned in the same ways she did. She saw great things, ancient worlds of ice and magma that had lain barren for millions of years in the time since the Star-Dreamer had passed by them and stood upon their ground. She saw creatures that could never have been born upon the world of men, twisted abominations that knew no boundaries inside of the laws of time and space which she had been limited to. Great sprawling cities built with architectural laws of the fifth dimension, cast down when the Old Gods had left them to their fate.

Ino had seen the monstrous abominations that the Star-Dreamer was brethren with. Their names, she knew, but their understanding was beyond her comprehension. Power filled her waking thoughts, and as she continued to dig deeper, she became more and more lost; she could feel the wealth of wisdom that the Star-Dreamer possessed, but was it worth the cost of her sanity?

The Key and the Gate. The Key and the Gate. Madness crawled upon her dreaming mind, and in one last fit of desperation, she threw herself back into the world of the living.

Dark concentric circles that defied the logic of Fuinjutsu appeared in the air as Ino stetched out her right hand, each one spinning in a different direction and at different speeds. Even if they hadn't been rotating, nobody would have been able to read the text that was written inside the bounds of each ring. Nobody but the Star-Dreamer could understand them, their meaning lost even to Ino's vast knowledge. Still...in her glimpse into the vast void of nothingness that was the eldritch god's mind, she had seen the one thing that it feared.

An entire world of creatures that could challenge its power. A world that it had failed to enslave, and then destroyed access to, trapping the last ten of their kind in a place where they didn't belong...a place that, moments earlier, only the Star-Dreamer could have re-opened. The All-in-One. The Key and the Gate. The High Priest had been a fool to believe that he could achieve a place at his forefathers' table.

 _That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons, even death may die._

Above them in the sky, the clouds became red, and the deep scar that had once led to the Heavenly Throne was laid to waste; in its place was a sprawling, spiraling portal of annihilation that led to the Makai. Ino had been touched by the holy power of a higher existence. She had gained knowledge that was not for mortal men to know, nor for them to have the strength to use. Only the sliver of Naruto's power, imbued in her by her close connection to him, had salvaged her from total inanity.

Her eyes burned white with an unearthly glow, her understanding of existence risen to the void. She was now the daughter of the Banished God, her existence a direct challenge to its own, for she had become something greater than god or man. She understood all things in all places, saw the connection of each living thing and all of the dead. In the Star-Dreamer she saw incomprehensibility; in a man like Madara, she saw jealousy and rage. In Zetsu, there was a thirst for vengeance...no, beyond that, a desire of acknowledgement. Of what, and from whom, she could not say, for she had no singular stream of consciousness to follow down that path. Then her gaze turned to Naruto, and she saw something she knew and feared instinctively.

The forces driving humanity were complex emotions, difficult to disentangle from one another as they went about their daily lives and lived to see another sunrise. Even those who had been vilified by their brethren were still inherently difficult to understand, and even the Jinchuriki were not immune from this. The Crawling Chaos made its way through life on flights of fancy, but Naruto was different. It hadn't always been that way, but at the moment, Naruto was fueled by a singular existence.

Hate.

The will to desecrate everything that stood in opposition to him defined Naruto's power. It was his generational legacy, passed down successively throughout all times and places. In every iteration, his hate had grown stronger, until it had driven him so far as to even hate himself. That was why he was the fated Cursed Child; he could save others from their own darkness, but not himself. Never himself. Unable to tell truth from illusion, unable to differentiate between himself and his enemies, Ino saw and understood in her fear that the young Hokage had only one salvation left on earth: his love for his family.

She understood. The Key and the Gate. Her body burned in wisps of light as Shikamaru and Chouji shouted her name. She would not be forgotten, but neither was she gone.

Her mind settled in all things and all places, an entity too powerful to be contained by mortal trappings. She would come again in glory, to judge the living and the dead. Inside of her heart, the Will of Fire continued to burn.

On the battlefield, chaos resumed.


	79. The Eclipse, I

**Hey, look at that, I got another chapter out inside of a month! AND this one is longer than normal, because I just...kept writing. I feel like this war-zone of a final battle has become a little pedantic, but at the same time, I can't find it in me to speed up the process; you guys are just gonna have to deal with my bullshit.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"No poison is left inside of his body. The rest is up to you." Shino said.

The words didn't bring Haku much comfort, his steady hands working quickly to close Kankuro's wound. Still, something bothered him at the back of his mind; saving the Suna-nin's life shouldn't have been possible, but something was keeping him alive. It was only the shallowest life possible. Kankuro was breathing, and little else. That was when the idea came to Haku: Sasori had lived on in a puppet body with no human organs. Was there a reason a similar technique couldn't keep a human alive, even missing some parts of his insides?

Haku did not relish the idea of using his skills to twist life into some sort of blend between man and machine, but he was a healer, and he would keep his comrade alive.

"Hand me the broken core that Sasori used to keep living." Haku said.

Shino retrieved it, and Haku placed Kankuro's still hand atop its broken head. Setting it inside of the hole Sasori had left the younger puppeteer with, Haku took a senbon and slowly pierced three places in his laid-out body. While the Hyuuga were the only ones who could visibly see the _tenketsu_ that determined where chakra could flow from, there were other spots near vital organs that could be made to force chakra out of the body; all it took was the knowledge of their placement...and a steady hand, to make sure that the subject didn't die.

Kankuro's chakra ran through his unconscious hands, pouring into the life-core that had belonged to Sasori. Seconds later, the flow of energy stopped, and Kankuro now had a plug for the lethal wound he'd received. From now on, he would be something not quite human, but he would _be._ That was enough. A quick check of his vital signs proved that Kankuro would, in fact, survive; with a sigh of relief, Haku packed his things away and resigned himself to returning Kankuro to the back line.

"If you can keep going, you should go join Naruto and the others." He said. "If not, then we should help the medical teams with whatever they need...and pray."

Shino raised an eyebrow at that. Haku had never struck him as a particularly reverent man, especially not when the gods were dead. Rather than asking who to pray to, however, the Aburame dissolved in a buzz. In black wisps that seemed more like small trails of smoke, Shino traveled as a swarm.

He was one, among many. He was many, of one mind. A hive made of a single person, whose thoughts were the ultimate order of the insects he housed within himself. As the dark red of the newborn demonic sky bathed the world in its glow, an eternal sunset under the cover of clouds, Shino felt its burning warmth and rejoiced.

* * *

Naruto had felt Ino's consciousness leave her body, but her shard of his hell-born power had refused to return to him. Blood continued to drip from his hand as he stared at Madara, who had lost all trace of kindness or mercy. In their place was the man that had spooked the world of men into submission, the dead gods' most favored son.

It didn't matter. His falx met the Uchiha scion's gunbai, blades clashing with one another as both refused to give ground. For all the unhallowed strength that was bursting through Naruto's body, Madara was a Zenton user, and his chakra had ascended to a more holy state.

 **"I'll kill you."** Naruto promised, bitter venom falling from his voice. **"I'm gonna turn your fucking skull into a bowl for my nachos."**

"Your threats are awfully pedantic, grandfather." Madara said lazily, his arms swinging to block another powerful blow before turning to strike. Naruto chose to dodge the attack, his preternatural speed barring even the Sharingan from tracking his movements.

 **"Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu!"** Naruto called his attack, the signature technique of the Uchiha clan. His fireball dwarfed plenty others in size, but it passed over Madara without harming him.

"Shinra Tensei." Madara said, sending Naruto hurtling end over end as he slid against the ground.

Naruto felt something pull at his conscious mind, and he relented to its grasp. In that split second, he understood what had become of Ino. She had become a creature strong enough to rival the All-in-One, though Naruto himself did not know what that might mean. She had become the Key, and all places in the world were the Gate. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, but the Daughter of the Banished God could fold that line so that the points were nearly touching.

Naruto felt like he'd heard of something like that before. Eliminating the distance it took to travel...a wrinkle in time.

"And so the man who would be king returned, in all his sordid misery." Itachi said with no trace of emotion, his Akatsuki cloak blowing in the wind as his Rinnegan locked eyes with Madara's. A single kunai was held loosely between Itachi's fingers, the gunbai of the clan head too large for him to want to wield.

"Futon: Kamikaze!" Madara swung the flat of his bladed war-fan, a great air current picking up and rushing towards his foes. As it traveled forward, the air _bent._ Curling into arrowheads, their speed increased, and Naruto scoffed; wind manipulation was his primary chakra trait. A barrier of the Kyuubi's youki rose, slamming down on the missiles in the air and sending them back towards Madara.

With a wave of his hand, Madara dispelled the technique, his chakra visibly returning to him in a flash of blue light.

 **"Well, that seems a little bit unfair."** Naruto complained.

"You're fighting Uchiha Madara, and you want to talk about fair?" Itachi questioned. "Let me handle this one. I don't know that his friends will be content to hold back with their power for too much longer."

Around them, small gaps appeared in the rain that forced Suigetsu's living will to pause for a moment. Something, _many_ things, fell from the sky; the Star-Spawn, endless sons of the Star-Dreamer, had come to do battle on their father's behalf. One, then ten, then a hundred, and more. Where Pein's desire had been to subjugate the world and bring it under his own rule, the Star-Dreamer wanted nothing more than to annihilate everything that breathed. His children were a means to that end.

In sync, the demons on the battlefield roared their challenge to the Star-Dreamer and his sons. Hulasikali Wala, Naruto, the Juubi, Yugito and Tayuya screaming with a primordial rage...and fear. They had been cast down by the Heavenly Throne once before, sealed off from their home and trapped in the world of the living. To avoid that fate now, they would have to rely on the strength of the very creatures they had terrorized for innumerable generations.

Suigetsu's demonic lightning came down and split one of the Star-Spawn open, killing it instantly, but he couldn't hit all of them with that kind of precision. Twisted abominations that they were, their monstrous forms defied any kind of natural creation. At Ino's command, the Tower of Babel built itself higher and higher, until it seemed nearly to reach the great hole in the sky; it was there that the Heavenly Gate, Makai, and earth all met together. A whirling vortex of energy, doom and damnation colluding with the hearts of men and gods.

It was everything that the Juubi could ever dream of. It shrank slowly, its form conspicuously similar to the young Hokage, until there was hardly a difference...but where Naruto stood clothed in the robes of the Hokage, with the hitai-ate of his grandfather upon his forehead, the Juubi was shirtless and cloaked his legs in darkness. The black material, dredged up from some forgotten memory of a world that man had left behind, seemed to bend light away from it. Neither did he have the scars that Naruto had suffered through as a child, save for two _Raikiri-_ sized craters in his chest. Empty eye sockets gazed out upon the battlefield, hands curling into fists with his rage.

His voice's pitch seemed to rise and fall at the same time, a two-toned bellow that pierced eardrums even as it made the air inside of the listeners' lungs shake. Long fangs protruded from the Juubi's mouth, and as he continued to scream with the full breath of his life, his jaw almost seemed to dislocate as it widened.

 _ **"We are one."**_ He declared, ten monstrous tails flaring out behind himself as his words were felt inside the onlookers' brains. _**"We are powerful."**_

One of the innumerable Star-Spawn charged the Juubi, only to be sliced in half by a wave of his demonic hand; only the Jinchuriki and Zetsu could see the youki that had extended outwards and bisected the creature. Naruto's first living incarnation had been a force of nature, a king of Makai, and a breaker of the natural order.

 _ **"Where are my beloved siblings? Where are the nine? You can't tell me humans have become so powerful that..."**_ He paused, fully viewing the world around him. Naruto, with nine tails splayed out behind him, and Yugito with two, and Tayuya with three. Hulasikali Wala, the demon of the open desert, at once Shukaku and not. _**"...we are the last ones left."**_

Demons grew by consuming. They took from what they killed, and those powers lived on inside of them for eternity, until they were killed and consumed in turn. The Juubi couldn't hear the voices of its remaining siblings anymore; they had been fed to him, erased from the world by the very circumstances that had been designed to keep them alive. He only needed fractions of their power, not their entire lives!

It was too late now. Half of the Biju had been sacrificed to bring him back to life, their netherworld strength added to his own. Grief rumbled in the Juubi's chest, a deep and unforgiving pain.

 _ **"I will feast on your bones within Makai!"**_ He swore, cocking back a fist that turned to molten magma as it ripped into the Star-Dreamer's chest.

The Old God responded by wrapping its still-growing arms around the Juubi's ribs and squeezing. Tightening its pressure with psychic power that emanated from dimensions nobody else could comprehend, Naruto heard the sickening cracks of his predecessor's ribs snapping one after another. As they did, the Star-Dreamer's tentacles that protruded from its lower jaw began to drill inside of the Juubi's face.

Naruto's falx came in from the back, its infernal hook carving into the Star-Dreamer's spine and dragging its attention away from the Juubi.

 **"Ehyee ot ahehyee mghri? Y' ahor ymg' ch'nglui'ahog nilgh'ri."**

It didn't matter that nobody could understand a word that came out of the god's mouth; its posture showed its arrogance, fully confident in its ability to defeat a Naruto from the past along with his present incarnation. The Star-Dreamer's eyes glowed white with power, spires of steel coming into being and launching down from the sky to pierce its foes.

Naruto and the Juubi were better than that, though. Lifetimes of experience let them dodge the spears with relative ease, even if more than one came a little too close for comfort. Even so, the Hokage sealed his sword away; he would need to avoid using the blade in order to move more quickly, something that the Star-Dreamer's powers made unavoidable. Blood continued to fall and hiss against the ground, but the few people who were paying attention saw the stone beneath his feet get eaten away by his blood's acidity. His transformation was accelerating, and nearly done.

That was when the cavalry arrived, as Temari, Neji, Lee, Mei, Ao, and Hinata came in to stand alongside the rest of their allies. Even with both his eyepatches still on, and his friend's body desecrated, Ao still recognized the shreds of clothing on the Star-Dreamer's body...and the strap that had held the _Kubikiri Houchou_ not too long ago.

"What...what happened to Zabuza?" He asked, before fending off an attack from one of the innumerable Star-Spawn.

 _ **"The God-King Cthulhu took his body for its own. He is dead, and his corpse is an avatar that Cthulhu is using to reassert his power on the world. All of his power is in that body now, which means that if we destroy it..."**_

 **"Then he dies for good."** Naruto finished his original incarnation's train of thought. **"Time to pull out all the stops."**

In terms of skill, Naruto hadn't done a whole lot in the battle so far. Sure, he'd transformed Suigetsu into a full-fledged demon, but most of what he'd done was swing his sword and use the Kyuubi's chakra. That was practically doing himself and his enemies a disservice; they deserved to be crushed by his full might. He'd spent years learning Ninjutsu, why cast that aside?

"I-isn't that Uchiha Madara?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah. We'll give you the play-by-play when this is over, hopefully." Yugito said.

"More fighting, less talking!" Temari commanded, her war fan splitting open an enemy.

She'd hardened her heart against everything now, with Kankuro's life in question. Negativity was all that could guide her; it was her shield against the terrible reality that she was the last of her siblings who was still alive. She'd seen the wound, she knew she'd given Haku an impossible task...so she took after Naruto's example, and she cloaked herself in her rage. She moved forward against the tide of the Star-Spawn, leading a charge that didn't follow after her. In moments, she was cut off and surrounded, but continuing to kill with indiscriminate force. One clawed hand grazed her arm, and another cut through the side of her dress to leave three long cuts along the side of her stomach.

"You gods-damned _TROUBLESOME_ WOMAN!" Shikamaru roared in fury, all of his calm nature melting into the frantic paranoia of someone who had one chance to change fate. He melted into darkness, his shadow-self writhing its way along the ground in a split second. One shadowy foot extended outward from inside of Temari's sleeve to collapse the throat of an encroaching Star-Spawn, while a dark hand extended from her other sleeve to stab a second alien monstrosity in its brain.

The shadows converged around her, and Shikamaru rose on a tide of darkness that swept forward with one mission: to kill everything in its way. She saw it in his eyes when he turned around: the same vibrant red that denoted Naruto's Jinchuriki transformations. The people who hadn't been affected by it already were starting to be, and those who'd been exposed to it were getting greater boosts of power from the adaptation.

"Don't you DARE!" Shikamaru chastised Temari, rage evident on his face even as he subconsciously moved more shadows to kill his foes.

He'd seen Ino disintegrate into nothingness; he'd killed too many people today, watched too many people die today. _Not Temari,_ he had determined, _not Temari too._ Inside of his brain, his heart, and his blood, something changed. The pupils of his eyes became more oblong, with up-and-down points reminiscent of a cat or a lizard, though the red in them remained. Temari saw the change in his teeth as well, his canines lengthening and becoming slightly broader. He disappeared, and upon the Star-Spawn's advance, a copy of his body appeared behind each one. Ethereal, his hands reached into their chest without injuring them...and exited with their hearts in his infinite hands. Each one dropped dead, and as his shadow collective reformed into a singular being, he felt a massive surge of power.

This was what it meant to be a demon.

"I'll need a minute to recover. I'll be back."

With those words, Shikamaru's form dissolved into darkness before flying away on the wind. More of the Star-Spawn would come, and their reprieve would be short, but he needed to rest in the between-world that his ancestors rested in. He would return, though. After all, nobody who casts a shadow is ever truly alone.

On the other side of their battlefield, Itachi continued to match Madara's jutsu with his own, their strength with the Rinnegan negating the others' prowess. On all levels except one, the two were equally matched; nobody thought that there was a fluke involved in Itachi's title as the _Nidaime Madara,_ and he was proving it in this battle. Still, there was one area where Madara held the upper hand, and it was high time for him to use it. With the Star-Spawn dead, whittling his allies down to a very slim trio, there was no better answer than his holy powers.

The Oathbreaker gathered his chakra together, bound so tightly within himself that it threatened to blind Naruto's senses, and he shouted.

"Zenton: Shinra no Nenshou Tenken!" Madara called out, and Naruto froze.

He remembered that technique, a lifetime ago. He remembered what it had done to his allies and his family, how it had murdered him. He remembered _using_ it in this life, on a battlefield where four Jinchuriki were fighting. For demons, the technique wasn't lethal; it was just a stunning blow, an overpowering force that kept them off their balance whether it hit or missed...but the majority of Madara's enemies here weren't demons.

Kurama raced inside of the _Shiki Fuin_ to come up with an answer in time, this meteor far larger and falling faster than the one Naruto had summoned in Kirigakure. The Burning Heavenly Fist of the Omnipresent God hurtled downward, glowing white-hot with the fires of heaven. They heard it long before they saw it, the coverage of the rain clouds forcing them to hear their doom before they saw it, but one among them wasn't worried. One among them was Fenrir, the mighty wolf demigod, whose destiny was to swallow the light of the sun at the final battle of the world.

Kiba laughed, reaching up, and as he and Akamaru fused for perhaps the final time, he couldn't help but think that it was a good day. Powered by chakra, by jutsu, by by fate itself, he shot further into the air than any mortal had a right to. As the meteor broke through the clouds, he struck it headfirst, and remembered his mother's words to him so long ago. The fire of the meteor died out, rock turning to dust as he fell.

 _You are Feanor, my son. You are the Spirit of Fire whose passion burns eternal. As long as you keep your friends in your heart, you'll always find your way._

Had he made his mother proud?

A giant red snake broke Kiba's fall, summoned expressly for that purpose, and Kiba initially recoiled; he knew who was famous for using that summoning contract. When he looked up, though, he was surprised.

"Sai?"

Danzo's protege now led Ne in the wake of his master's passing, and their force was gathering with the rest of the humans from the battlefields across Amegakure who still lived. His eyes were open wide, a twisted grin plastered to his face with fangs showing openly.

"I am the necessary evil." He intoned, ignoring the beast-man's question of his name. "I defend Konoha from the shadows, from all that might destroy it. I do this because no one else will."

There was a primal fear of Sai in Kiba's burning heart; before him stood something that, by all logic and reasoning, should not exist. What had happened to the calm, cool, dry-humored Sai he'd come to know on their search for Naruto? The tipless tanto remained at rest on his side, and he disappeared in a burst of speed that only Itachi and Madara could track. In the half-second it took him to glide across the battlefield, he'd drawn his father's _Kusanagi_ blade and, in passing, lopped off one of the Star-Dreamer's arms. Black blood flowed out from it, and from the newly-severed flesh, a new arm took shape where the old one had rested.

 **"Fantastic. It can regenerate whole limbs, and I can't even get back a lousy pair of eyes."** Naruto groaned.

"Can't you see chakra?" Neji asked.

 **"Not the point, Neji."**

"I'm just saying, it feels like you might have-" Neji was interrupted, dodging an attack from one of the reborn Star-Spawn. "-might have been better off without your eyes than with them. It hasn't really impeded you."

 **"Zenton: Sandan Juu."**

Fallen metal rose up around Naruto before condensing into a tight cylinder. A tube of Futon chakra surrounded it, and with one propulsion blast provided by Katon chakra, the Shotgun technique fired; Naruto had his own ideas on the nature of a cannon's use. He liked the, "up close and personal," approach.

Molten metal ripped into the Star-Dreamer's chest, burning holes through cloth and flesh as makeshift buckshot tore into the god. Leaping forward, he wrapped his hands around the Star-Dreamer's throat and began to throttle it; the old god tried to shake him away, tried to throw him off, but it wasn't happening. It tore Naruto's right hand off at the elbow, but the Kyuubi's youki kept the arm attached and flexing. Slowly but surely, he was choking the life out of the Star-Dreamer. Just a little more, and this would all be over. A little more, and this war would be as good as won.

It wasn't to be. A blinding blue light whirled around them, sending Naruto flying as his body parts reattached themselves. Deep within the _Shiki Fuin,_ Kurama roared with undying rage; the architect of the legend they played out had come down to the battlefield of its own volition. Antal Dara, in the flesh...such as it was.

The blue light condensed into the shape of a man, but no man could have been made in such a way. His golden skin was cracked with veins of cobalt, bright lights adorning the deep blue at random intervals. The cold, dead eyes of infinity's keeper stared out upon a world which he had seen countless times. He was the keeper of the story, author of the play, and this was not how the return of the gods was to be handled by demons or men. He had spent uncounted lifetimes laboring over the architecture of the Star-Dreamer's awakening, and it would not end like this! It couldn't end like this!

With one burst of power, he forced all movement to stop; even his own allies weren't immune. Nyarlathotep, Madara, the Star-Dreamer, and Zetsu, were all as helpless as their foes.

"Uzumaki Naruto. Defender of the world of men, a lord of demons on an equal level with both the King of Bel and the Great Darkness itself." He heaped praises upon the Juubi. "My, my, my...it has been a long, _long_ time since I've seen your face. Then again...that's right, isn't it? I was the last thing that you saw that night, before I ripped your eyes from your skull. You stole the light of heaven after I tried to keep mankind safe from your meddling, and now you've cast a shadow on darkness itself! It's time to end your pitiful, merciless life, Naruto. The Eclipse has already begun."

A brilliant yellow light shone behind the portal to Makai, brighter and more fearsome than the sun. Coursing through the world of men came the pulse that broke away the clouds Suigetsu had gathered together, revealing that outside their existence laid a swirling wall of red-and-black miasma that weighed upon their very lives. One by one, the twisted creations of the gods came forward as they were summoned, a legion too large to comprehend.

The world of men now slouched toward ruin.


	80. The Eclipse, II

**Eighty chapters. I can't fucking believe we've come this far, boys and girls. This ended up mostly being an exhibitory chapter, but it's something I'd been planning on writing for a few chapters, and I decided that now was as good a time as any. Besides, it's been three weeks, I needed to get _something_ out!**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

"This is all Naruto's fault." Sasuke complained. "I have no proof, but honestly? I don't need any."

The world around them had changed colors, the scenery of Amegakure's broken walls and buildings replaced by what seemed to be a solid wall of writhing blood and shadows. Vague faces of creatures not meant to be seen in heaven or on earth could be viewed if they stared long enough, but he wasn't so much of a fool that he would stand still while there were enemies to be slain.

"Sasuke...that's not very nice. Especially after he saved you at the Valley of the End, and we went out of our way to search for him, even though we got trapped on Zabuza's boat for a long time." Sakura chided him.

"Look, I'm just saying, there's no way in hell this would be going on...whatever _this_ is...if Naruto hadn't done something." He said.

"Didn't you just say that you have no proof?" She asked.

"When on earth has Naruto ever needed _proof_ to do things? He just jumps in, fists first, balls to the wall!"

"In his defense, though, he's never been a great thinker."

"That just makes it worse!"

The pair were racing towards the broken Tower of Babel at Amegakure's center, cutting their way through the odd Star-Spawn that popped up to attack them. As they came closer, however, more and more of the alien assailants were drawing back from their main assault to strike the Konoha-nin down. Up ahead, though, they saw something they weren't prepared for: the Sannin were alive again, waging war against impossible odds. Orochimaru moved with the sinewy maneuverability of the snakes he summoned, Tsunade caused more damage with her bare hands than she could with any weapon, and Jiraiya?

Sasuke didn't hear the name of the technique the Gama Sennin used, and he didn't feel like he needed to. In seconds, the conflagration died down, revealing little more than charred cinders and burnt rubble where an army of Star-Spawn had assaulted them. Sharingan eyes going wide in shock, the dots connected. This was the man who'd taught Naruto most of what he knew; it was no wonder why everything the blond did was so over-the-top with wild violence. Ninja who could pull off techniques on that sort of scale, repeatedly, were few and far between...and Jiraiya didn't even have a Biju to back up his power.

That was the most terrifying part, Sakura thought. To have the kind of strength to fight toe-to-toe with real-life demons? That was a level of power that few people ever achieved, and most of them died anyway. This was the second time they'd seen the effects of an attack on that scale, the first being Konan's obliteration of Konoha.

"It's been a long time, Sasuke." Orochimaru said, raising one hand to beckon them forward. "You too, Sakura. How have these last months treated you?"

"Something tells me you shouldn't be the one acting all chummy with them." Jiraiya said. "Considering you branded one and attempted to kidnap him, captured and experimented on their teammate for the better part of a year, and are one of the most famous rogues in history."

"In my defense, I attempted to make Sasuke run away of his own volition. I didn't actually have a hand in kidnapping him...talk to Tayuya about that one."

"That's not exactly better." Tsunade said. "At all."

"I'm surrounded by philistines." Orochimaru bemoaned his fate.

"In your defense, you're surrounded by enemies." Sasuke said with ice in his voice.

His blood boiled at the idea of working together with the man who'd done his utmost to destroy the life that all of the Rookie Twelve had worked for, but what choice did he have?

"We need to keep moving, before more of them arrive. The faster we can make it to Naruto's position, the faster we can put an end to this." Sakura said.

"Sakura..." Tsunade said, looking to her second apprentice. "...it's good to see you again."

"You too, master." Sakura replied with a smile on her face.

Both of the younger ninja knew what was going on with the deceased Sannin. Before they'd gone on to assault Orochimaru's base, they'd been briefed on his abilities, and the _Edo Tensei_ was one that they'd been sure to know; after all, it was what had caused the Sandaime Hokage to die.

Without the need for any more words, they pressed on. Marching further into the hellscape that Amegakure had become, the God-King itself was eventually visible; it had grown to the height of two men, surrounded by enemies, and Orochimaru winced slightly as he saw a giant red snake get throttled and thrown into the distance.

"Not much of a conversationalist, I guess." Jiraiya quipped, watching the snake sail through the air. "You can feel this pressure too, right?"

"Just like the night the Kyuubi attacked." Orochimaru confirmed. "I don't know what happened, but Makai has been brought here. All those demons concentrated in one place, the Eye of the Heavens corrupted, a portal to hell eclipsing a holy light...and soon enough, a demon army marching its way to murder the humans trapped here."

"A tomb for mankind? What's Pein thinking?" Tsunade asked.

"He worshiped the old gods and claimed he was their vessel. If legends and old wives' tales hold any truth to them, this is the end of days." Orochimaru said.

"To break and cleanse the world, then create a new one in their own perfect image...that's some high-class bullshit." Jiraiya's voice took on an edge. "Well, fine. If they want a last stand, I'll _give_ them a last stand!"

Standing still, Jiraiya gathered natural energy to enter his most powerful state. He grew a little taller, coming closer to seven feet than six, and his nose distorted as his war-paint changed to a much broader and far more distinctive look. With the yellow eyes of a toad, and rage plain on his face, he began to walk forward again.

"Let's go hunt some demons." He said.

* * *

Things were going from bad to worse, Naruto surmised. That wasn't a particularly difficult claim to make, but he still felt like it needed to be noted by _somebody._ Their numbers were slowly dwindling, the enemy's numbers only seemed to grow...he had to find some way to end this. Fast. One chain of chakra shot out from the ground, a red glow clarifying its demonic heritage as Antal Dara narrowly avoided its passing. One after another, it cut through the god-summoned army of Star-Spawn, and Naruto decided that the time for words was over. In moments, his demonic _Raikiri_ carved through the air.

"Lightning?" Antal Dara asked. "You've never struck me as the type."

 **"Well, then it's time for you to stop being thunderstruck."** Naruto growled, his hand cutting into Antal Dara's palm as the god raised it to block. The sound of a thousand screaming ravens filled the sky, blood coating Naruto's arm even as Antal Dara healed from the damage done to him.

"Surely, one technique can't possibly be the conclusion to your strength. You have always been someone to rise above despair, Uzumaki Naruto...show me the height of your power."

Antal Dara withdrew his arm, static seeming to warp across his body before he appeared behind Naruto, kicking him in the knee. Naruto whipped around, both hands making individual seals to charge his chakra before he thrusted them forward.

 **"Katon: Kitsune-bi."**

The _Foxfire_ technique flashed around the blue-and-gold god, nine long lashes of flame condensing into wispy balls before they dive-bombed Antal Dara. Shocked by the pain, he let out a gasp; that was all the information that Naruto needed to understand. Naruto could _hurt_ him. Naruto could _kill_ him.

Naruto could _take his place._

The demonic fire of Kurama's vested interest had left its mark, deep blue mottling the areas of Antal Dara's body where golden skin had once existed. Pain, glorious pain, coursed through the breach-god's holy body. It had been centuries, even millennia, since he'd felt the touch of despair brought on by fighting someone with the power to kill him. Antal Dara had been a man, once; he remembered the days before the Star-Walker had arrived, before the demons had been sealed away, before Kurama the Nine-Tailed had mutilated his king's living essence and given it the derogatory sobriquet of, "Star-Dreamer."

He remembered the demonic Uzumaki Naruto, the _first_ Uzumaki Naruto, fusing with the divine Yggdrasil that bound the realms of causality together. He remembered losing his powers thanks to that interference, and he remembered desecrating the blond demon though labored torture before finally killing him. There could be no forgiveness for such a transgression...not when it came from a demon, and was directed against the gods.

He remembered that he had left humanity behind. With a twist of his hand, ancient sigils swept across the air, beams of energy surging through the sky before lancing down to pierce the ground where Naruto had been standing a moment earlier.

"Faster than I thought." The god noted passively. "Not fast enough, though."

Antal Dara had taken his strength from the Old One who rested beyond the boundaries of existence, a waylaid entity beyond any understanding but its own. The world _bent,_ and only the strength of his chakra kept Naruto rooted to his place. The sky seemed to warp around him, boxing him in, compressing him further...and then, suddenly, it stopped. The kunai inside Naruto's left hand slid out from its resting place in his palm, healing almost instantly, and it forced Naruto to adjust to the void of feeling. The very _idea_ of time had seemed to slow itself to a halt, and Naruto felt a pull on his consciousness that could only be the Kyuubi's work.

* * *

 _Drip. Drip. Drip._

At last, the leaking pipe in that hellscape of a seal had run dry. The water had run out, leaving only the bare stone to walk on as Naruto approached the unsealed cage that held Kurama prisoner.

 **"You've done it."** Kurama said with a devilish grin. **"By all the gods I killed...you've done it."**

 **"Done what?"** Naruto asked.

 **"You're a demon now. The change might take a little while to set in, physically, but your last human cells have finally converted. And this...is the last conversation we'll ever have."**

 **"What? Why?"**

 **"This seal, the _Shiki Fuin,_ is designed to filter my energy into your body. It's not breakable by the caster, the target, or the sealed entity...and you're a demon now. Demons grow by killing their victims, and consuming their power. Now that you're a demon, the process is expedited. After I die, and my strength settles inside of you, Antal Dara and the Star-Dreamer don't stand a chance. Neither will Madara, or your insufferable son. All you have to do is survive that long."**

Naruto was at a loss for words, but after a moment, he finally seemed to find some.

 **"How can you be so...so...so _calm_ about this? If you're really dying, then-"**

 **"I have lived a long, long life. I spent most of it in Makai, but I'll never see my home again. I reconciled myself to that about two thousand years ago. I watched mice evolve into lemurs, and saw those lemurs turn into monkeys, and some of those monkeys grew into men. I've seen tens of thousands of years of humans committing violence against one another, and I've seen your incarnations die more times than you can count...but I've seen the good in men, too, and that's why I could never abandon them to their fate as the gods' playthings. A normal demon would try to run from death, afraid of being assimilated into another demon's power, but I can't escape. So, I'll face my end the same way you did, back in Kirigakure: I'll wait for it to come."**

"And we'll stay with you until the end. Won't we?" A voice called out, and Naruto whipped around.

His parents stood there, looking the same way they had in the moments before their deaths. It was Kushina who'd spoken, her eyes set in determination as she stared down the demon who she'd kept imprisoned within her own body for almost her entire life.

"Of course we will." Minato said with a wry grin. "How can I not, after a speech like that?"

 **"Mom? Dad?"** Naruto asked.

"Yeah. I should probably explain, shouldn't I?" Minato rubbed the back of his neck. "These are just portions of us, sealed away in the _Shiki Fuin,_ that were supposed to stop you from unsealing the Kyuubi...but something went wrong."

"Something called, 'your father was too busy rooting for you to kill that blue-haired woman to stop you from unsealing the Kyuubi.' This is why I was the one in charge of making decisions." Kushina said snidely.

"Hey, formulating a seal to preserve our living consciousness, and trying to decide where we want to eat, are two _completely_ separate strains of decision-making. That's like comparing pears and beef."

 **"So, wait...you'll be absorbed by the seal, too?"**

"Yes." Minato confirmed.

"Well, our time was going to be limited anyway, so maybe it's better like this. We get to see you, and then we get to lend you our strength. It may not have been physical, but we've always been watching over you. And soon, we'll be a part of you. Never forget that we love you, Naruto. We always have, and we always will. No matter what, you're our son." Kushina said with a smile.

 **"Stop stalling for time. Don't you need to go back out there and save the world?"** Kurama chided.

 **"But...there's so much I want to ask! There's still so many things that I need to be explained!"**

The demon fox's deep laughter echoed, and Naruto felt a chill run down his spine.

 **"Sometimes,"** Kurama said with a grin, **"we never get the answers we want, even if it would only take a small change in perspective to reach that desired end. I was so fixated, so blinded with rage by your original death, that I failed to understand something."**

"Oh? That's news to me." Kushina said.

 **"You, in all your iterations, have been the same man that I was proud to call my brother. Everything I've ever done in my time on this earth, I did for you, or because of you. In a way, it makes perfect sense that I give up everything I have left in order to help you. I do have...one last request, though."**

 **"And what might that be?"**

 **"Okay, I lied. Two last requests."**

"Enough is never enough." Minato nodded sagely.

 **"First, I want you to take your sword, and rip that smug golden son of a bitch's head off so hard that he can't regenerate. Killing him any other way is _also_ acceptable, but you have a flair for the dramatic, so I thought I could play to your strengths. Second, I want you to get an extra bowl of ramen every time you eat one...do it for me."**

 **"Yeah."** Naruto smiled softly, leaning his head down. **"Yeah, I can do that."**

"You need to go back soon." Minato warned. "The seal won't hold out for too much longer now, and if your conscious mind is in here, then it'll be absorbed into your body too. I don't have time to explain all the specifics, but..."

Kushina couldn't help herself, running to hug the son she'd never gotten a chance to hold prior to her death. Minato sighed, but smiled, and walked forward to do the same.

 **"I'll miss you."** Naruto said.

"We're going to be a part of you, just like your mom said. Maybe it's not the life we envisioned, but an eternity with our baby boy doesn't sound so bad."

"Nope! Your dad and I will always be here, rooting for you!" Kushina said with a smile. "Now go, go! Back to the real world. Back to Tayuya! And make me _lots_ of grandkids after this battle's all over and done with!"

Naruto didn't ask how his mother knew his girlfriend's name, and he balked a little at the directive she gave him, but who was he to refuse a dead woman's last request?

 **"I'll miss you, too, you giant ball of fur."**

 **"Get out of here, you damn monkey!"** Kurama growled. **"Go out there and show those pathetic gods why they feared us!"**

 **"Yeah, you're right. I still have to do that...goodbye, Kurama."**

A red-and-white glow enveloped Naruto's body, yellow soon joining the mix to make a bright orange color that spun until he vanished from the matrix of the _Shiki Fuin's_ inner workings.

 **"Goodbye, Naruto. Goodbye...brother."**

Kurama closed its eyes, and the rage inside of its heart had finally quieted. Peace, that was what the Juubi had once told it to strive for. Naruto's first incarnation had prayed for peace to come to the world, so that he might die and stay dead, and his sacrifice wouldn't be in vain. He'd known he was walking to his doom, and he'd pressed on regardless. According to some people, the way you faced the moment of your death would say a lot about the kind of life you'd lead.

Kurama was its brother's keeper, and neither of them were cowards. A dim blue light of absolution began to wash over the chamber that had kept the Kyuubi prisoner for so many years, and Kurama couldn't help but smile. The ghostly copies of Minato and Kushina, that it had spent so long hating, vanished into the light first.

Then there was nothing in the room anymore, and no use for the _Shiki Fuin,_ so the seal collapsed on itself and faded into obsolescence.


	81. The Eclipse, III

**Another chapter out, not too long after the last one. We're closing in on the end, here, folks...but it's been fun. Hopefully, it's been fun for you too. Also: happy Thanksgiving 2017! In thirty years I'll look back on this chapter and wonder how the time slipped away.**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. Noahendless: You've been here since like, the very beginning, man. You've earned as many cookies as you want.  
**

 **2\. jtcr: You did the math right, it's been a little bit over a year and a half since I started. What's most amusing to me about that, though, is the fact that I started writing this fic because I had writer's block about _As Long as the Raven Flies,_ my NGE fic that's...still not updated. Whoops. I'm going to pass the 300K mark before I'm done here, and I started because I was too lazy to finish something else. Talk about bullshit levels of productivity.**

 **3\. MetalRasenganBijuuLord: I've said it before, but I'll say it again: my style of writing catches a lot of people as unique because I'm entirely self-taught. (Part of that's on me for getting classified with a learning disability on how to write essays when I was in elementary school, part of it is the fact that apparently nobody in the city where I grew up is capable of teaching proper English.) Thanks for the compliments though! I'm glad you've enjoyed my writing enough to run straight through all 80 chapters before this one. Hopefully these last few will leave you feeling the same way.**

 **Now, as is customary, for my every-ten-chapters report: the stats for _Within the Straws I Grasp,_ now that it's reached chapter 81: 591 reviews, 704 favorites, and 861 followers. It's been added to 4 C2s, and had more than 335K unique hits across the globe...which is fucking amazing, to me. More than a third of a million people have read this story. ****I couldn't have done it without your support.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

Naruto's chakra cloak, the sign of his Jinchuriki heritage and status, faded into nothingness. In place of the nine vanished tails of the Kyuubi, ten black tendrils of darkness extended. Coils of red-hot youki curled up each one, like magma breaking through the dried ash on a volcano, and it sent a message: this was not the same young man who'd been standing in that place moments ago. A creeping wave of despair washed over every living being trapped in the Eclipse that Antal Dara had put forth, and even the gods were affected. How could they not be?

They had just witnessed the birth of a second Juubi. One stood with the power of the holy World Tree, Yggdrasil, fused into his flesh and bones since before the fall of the gods. The other had absorbed Kurama the Godslayer, and with it, all the infernal power it had possessed. Hollow eye sockets stared out upon the battlefield, and Naruto walked forward with one purpose.

Murder.

"You're supposed to be trapped in the fold!" Antal Dara hissed, confusion and irritation plain on his face.

 **"But I'm not."**

Dark fire lanced out from Naruto's hands, concentrated on one spot; moments later, Antal Dara's right hand fell away, burned to nothingness.

 **"You can't heal what doesn't exist anymore."** Naruto snarled.

The breach-god hissed in pain, and even the still-growing form of the Star-Dreamer paused in consideration of the strength Naruto was showing. Still, through the cauterized flesh of Antal Dara's wrist, a pair of razor-tipped bones extended.

"I could, if I chose to...but I think it'll be more fun this way. Don't you? I still have plenty of time."

 _ **"Do you?"**_ The original Juubi asked, intercepting an oncoming stab with his hand; the bony spikes passed through the gaps in the eldritch demon's fingers, which closed around Antal Dara's makeshift punch-daggers.

"Time is always on my side." Antal Dara quipped confidently, his left hand coming up with a glowing yellow circle spining in front of it. "I may not have the scope of the Banished God's powers, but space and time are my playthings. You joined with Yggdrasil before your death, and kept me from manipulating matter, but as long as the hands on a clock still move, I am order. I am the world."

 **"Have you always been this repetitive?"** Naruto asked. _Rat. Dragon. Tiger. Dog. Dragon. Monkey. Ox. Boar. Rat. Tiger. Horse._ **"Futon: Joushou Suru Kasou no Kami no Moriagari!"**

Naruto's attack, the _Rising Underworld God's Excitement,_ swept straight up from the ground and split cleanly through Antal Dara's body, only for it to reform. Still, it felt like there was something...off. True, the god's body looked mostly the same, but Naruto couldn't completely place why he thought something was wrong. It was almost too symmetrical? As though, in healing, the breach-god hadn't been able to completely repair himself. Rather than the cobalt cracks that denoted where he'd suffered some sort of injury, he'd simply fused back together, and lost a piece of himself in the process.

A second blow came at an angle, launching into the sky and ripping through Antal Dara's midsection. Once again, the god came back together, and the edges of the blue veins across his body didn't match. So, that meant the trick was to cut completely through him. Shrink him down enough, make the molecules holding his ancient body together dissipate...

Naruto grinned, but that wasn't to last, as Antal Dara's left hand clenched into a fist. In an instant, he was blown backwards into a throng of Star-Spawn, who converged on him without mercy. The breach-god stood in front of where Naruto had been, a twisted smile on his face as he watched the alien creations of his king dogpile the newborn demon.

Moments later, an ethereal fire burned through the Star-Spawn, and the smile was gone from Antal Dara's face. Blood coated Naruto's torso, black and red and every color that fell between the two.

 **"Neat little trick."** Naruto growled.

Power radiated across his body, a maelstrom of dark youki that was strong enough for the human eye to see. It swirled in a vortex as an aura around him, with slow tints of red emerging as his body absorbed its former tenant's powers. Before he could do anything, though, Antal Dara appeared behind him and shoved his elbow down into Naruto's spine. Before Naruto could hit the ground, the breach-god was beneath him, bone tines goring Naruto through the chest before a kick sent him airborne. The ex-human hit the ground, but stood up again with practically no sign of damage.

The Juubi didn't see fit to stand around doing nothing, a thorn-studded branch extending out from his palm to pierce Antal Dara's back.

 _ **"Don't forget."**_ He told his murderer. _**"I told you, all those years ago..."**_

"What?" Antal Dara asked, confused, unable to move as the power of Yggdrasil tore through his body and held him in place. "You froze my limbs? You can't move either! What could you _possibly_ hope to achieve?"

 _ **"Naruto! Balefire!"**_ The Juubi shouted, not caring about the consequences of his actions. All that mattered was the fact that the architect of his suffering would die.

The Hokage had never heard of that technique, never seen or used it...but the Kyuubi had. Kurama hadn't been afraid to resort to it, despite its drastic effects on the state of reality, and Kurama's power had become part of Naruto's. The energy came up as Naruto stretched his hand forward, a bright glow emanating that could have blinded anybody looking directly at it. Naruto channeled raw power, fire and lightning and wind howling as they joined together in front of his hand.

"No, no! What are you doing? Don't you realize what this means?" Antal Dara said, beginning to panic. Balefire was an art usable by gods and demons, but had been forbidden from use for either one by virtue of its nature.

 _ **"The night you stole the light of the world from me, I told you we would die together. That's the way it's always been with us, hasn't it? You always run away, preying on my weaker reincarnations to avoid the fate of our mutual destruction. But now, it's time to face the end. Tarmon Gai'don has come, Menma, and you can't run anymore. We die together. I love you...little brother."**_

 **"Zenton: Jinsei no Shoukyo no Seinaru Hi."**

"No! You can't do this! It destroys the Pattern! It rips-"

Antal Dara's last words were cut short as the _Sacred Fire of Life's Erasure_ coursed into, and through, his body. The balefire ripped through the tether connecting the breach-god to the Juubi, burning into the World Tree that had taken root inside of it. With that connection, the death-strike wormed its way inside of its unintended target. The first of Naruto's many incarnations looked as if it wanted to say something, but smiled and nodded instead. Then, it was gone, its power left to slumber inside of the young Hokage for all time.

A sense of pleasure rose up inside of Naruto, something that wasn't his own; whether he would realize it or not, Kurama's slain soul had felt Antal Dara die. Deep inside the pits of Naruto's new, expansive power, the vulpine demon would take its time torturing the dead god.

Cracks appeared, then, in the world around them. The sky and earth were rent in twain by fractures that leaked across causality, and whose root cause couldn't be undone. In that void, set off from the expanse of time and space as all creation understood it, was a realm of endless darkness; a multitude of bulging eyes took shape, straining to take in the sight of existence.

 **"Zhro! Zhro!"** The Star-Dreamer shouted in panic, shielding its face from the sight of those limitless eyes. It held no fear in the face of men or demons, but this aberration...this thing that was not, that _should not be,_ left it mortified. At its command, as dark purple light reached out in streams of double-helixes to mend the break on unreality, the gaps began to close. As they did, the eyes that had come to fill the gaps exploded, raining gore upon the onlookers who still lived.

"That's disgusting." Tayuya complained. "Would I rather be dead, or covered in blood? Covered in blood. But that doesn't mean I _want_ that."

"Relative comparisons are a hell of a drug." Yugito laughed. "Now come on, let's finish what we've started."

 **"Stay out of this."** Naruto's voice boomed with the power of a thunderclap, his tails floating out behind him as his fury built further upon itself. **"Suigetsu. Ino. Shikamaru. To me."**

The trio of ex-humans appeared, one by one, in the order they were called. Suigetsu pulled himself down from the humid air, water and youki coalescing into the swordsman's form. The tide of his power carried the _Kubikiribouchou_ to his hand, and he flexed his wrists to test his newfound demonic strength. Shikamaru dredged himself up from the shadows cast by the multitude of corpses, pride for his cause burning in his eyes as the darkness fell away to reveal his form. And Ino?

A psychic force, almost invisible to the naked eye, shambled forward. Her transparency cancelled out, and Ino stood behind her demonic compatriots as something that wasn't quite describable; she held a shard of Naruto's power, the twisted strength of the Star-Dreamer, and the psionic might of her clan. Holier than a demon, less than a god, but more than a man, she was closer in nature to Naruto than anything else in existence.

"So this is how it's going to be, father?" Zetsu growled, detaching himself from his battle with Oboro to move in front of the four demons. The elder Uzumaki slunk back, more than one wound present on her body as she regrouped with the main force.

 **"Your father is dead, Kouga. All that's left of him is a memory of light."** Naruto said.

The Star-Dreamer was capable of reversing the damage done to the world by the use of balefire, but even at the height of its power, it couldn't resurrect a soul that had been consumed by the forbidden art. That was why, even at the risk of breaking reality itself, Kurama had been unafraid to use it; it was one of the few things that could, truly, bring an end to the immortal.

"Light? Don't make me laugh. Nothing about you has _ever_ added up to someone who lives in the light."

What could Naruto argue against that with? He'd just evolved into a demon and committed deicide. Those were two very strong points in the ancient man's favor. Six more colors sprang up to weave along the darkness of his ten tails, and the world seemed to move with him as he strode forward.

 **"I know the secret you've carried with you for the last five thousand years."** Naruto revealed, drawing upon the knowledge that his absorbed powers had granted him. **"But I have no need of it. Shikamaru..."**

The blightwalker demon dispersed into a cloud of shade, flowing around the battlefield before taking root on the spot where Zetsu stood. It spiked straight up, goring the long-lived Uzumaki ancestor through his right side, before it converged completely on Zetsu's body and masked him from view. His screams echoed through the air, and Zetsu managed to extend an arm out from the vampiric mist for a brief moment; its flesh was mottled and stripped away, long patches revealing heavy blood loss, graying muscle tissue, and cracked-open bones. Soon after, though, he lost the strength to reach for his escape, and Shikamaru reformed behind where the prodigal son of the Juubi had stood. Wiping blood from his lips, a pile of bones, muscle, and organs fell to the ground in front of him.

 **"That. Was. Awesome."** Naruto grinned. Thunder rumbled in the demonic sky above them, and Naruto traced the sound as his senses sharpened.

Sasuke rode forward on a gigantic beast of lightning, a hoof-footed tiger-dragon, and crashed headfirst into the Star-Dreamer's body.

"Itachi!" He shouted. His eyes had transformed to their atomic Mangekyou form, a blood-red pinwheel that rotated slowly as he landed beside his elder brother.

 **"Oh, sure, he's all excited to see his brother, but when it's me he's always, _'Naruto why are you doing this,'_ or, _'Naruto why aren't you doing that.'_ Jackass."**

"Might have something to do with your rivalry." Shikamaru said.

 **"What rivalry? I could beat his ass from here to the ends of the universe."**

"If you say so, troublesome leader."

 **"Ugh. Fine. Fuck you."**

Manta appeared, coiling around the God-King and constricting. Gamabunta was summoned back into existence moments later, drawing his gigantic wakizashi and bringing it down on the middle of the Star-Dreamer's head. The blade cut into the top part of the god's skull, before a surge of energy forcefully dispelled both summons.

"'Leave it to the next generation,' they said. 'They'll thrive in adversity,' they said." Tsunade's reanimated corpse walked forward, a single punch causing one unfortunate Star-Spawn's head to explode. "Well, look where that line of thinking got us."

As the Sannin, along with Sasuke and Sakura, joined the fray, Naruto dropped everything as he felt the presence of the man who'd destroyed his life. His jump carried him across the battlefield, and the _shunshin_ that followed it gave him the opportunity he needed to stab Orochimaru with a kunai...only for it to stop short of penetrating his skin, and the metal bent before snapping off under the strain of Naruto's unrelenting strength.

"I'm not the one you should be fighting right now, Naruto." Orochimaru's smirk only drove the blond Hokage further into his rage.

 **"I don't care. I don't care if the world burns, I _will_ kill you. I'm gonna fucking kill you. If it's the last goddamn thing I ever do, I am going to rip you to pieces and eat your fucking soul."**

"Tayuya's habits have gotten to you, I see."

Orochimaru didn't try to resist as Naruto attempted to rip him apart with his bare hands, as even with all of his demonic strength behind him, the newborn Juubi couldn't even cause the White Snake's skin to tear. Once, twice, and a third time, all with grunts of great exertion, Naruto tried and failed to murder his former captor and experimental overseer.

"It's not going to work, Naruto." Orochimaru said, his body not moving as Naruto tried to punch him in the stomach. Failing that, he tried to bite into the unmoving Sannin's shoulder. "Naruto. Stop doing this. It's not going to work."

 **"I'm going to kill you!"**

"No you won't. It's physically impossible. Listen to me, Naruto, I'm immortal now. I'm kill-proof."

Ino bent the world in Naruto's perception, the ground beneath him shifting as he was carried away from the Sannin.

"G'd'd'd'd'd'd'd'd'd'd'd'd'd'dt." She tried to speak, the separated consonants coming out of her mouth in rapid-fire time. "D'd'd'd'j'j'j'ck. T't't't'ck."

Words and thoughts were an impossibility for the psychically-gifted woman, her stream of consciousness forcing her to attempt to speak in two thousand different languages at once. Did she know those languages? No. But her mind had been touched by the madness of an entity whose existence was aberrant to human understanding, and so too was she beyond the realm of mortal kenning. Her psionic scream of frustration was enough to burn the minds of the demons around her, and the Star-Dreamer paused as it considered the cosmic force it had inadvertently helped to create.

 **"Let me kill him!"** Naruto roared.

"D'd'd'd'j'j'j'ck."

 **"Dammit, Ino!"**

"G'd'd'd'd'd'g."

 **"Fine. Suigetsu, Shikamaru, Nyarlathotep is all yours. Ino, you and I are going after His Royal Assness. Calamari's on the menu."**

"I'm not sure that's the right seafood, but whatever." Suigetsu said, sparing no time to wonder about the state of Ino's existence. "And what about Madara?"

 **"Itachi and Sasuke are both fighting him. If he manages to break past them, _that's_ when we worry about that."**

"You know what? That's fair."

Suigetsu held his sword aloft, racing forward to face the embodiment of disorder. His shark-like teeth had grown longer, their edges visibly jagged if the observer looked close enough, and his transformation into a demon had served to increase his strength and speed by a factor that few humans could hope to match. The Watcher in the Dark flapped its wings, buffeting its foe, and melted into a cloud as Shikamaru approached in the form of his vampiric mist. The two intersected, and when Nyarlathotep reformed, the once-human Shikamaru had fused into its back. his legs extended out from above the monstrosity's shifting shoulder blades, and he looked down on the faceless creature who owned all faces.

"Can't run now. Take the shot, Suigetsu."

He was one with the shadows, and not even the power of chaos itself could completely escape the nature of causality. The hole in Zabuza's blade looped around the Blind Ape of Truth's head, encircling its neck before Suigetsu pulled it back. The Crawling Chaos dissolved into darkness, remnants of its body morphing into Shikamaru's as vestiges of its eldritch might began to weigh on Suigetsu's shoulders.

The wild wind blew at Naruto's back, and he couldn't help but laugh. He, the penniless orphan who'd grown up on the streets of Konoha's slums, was going to kill the God-King. Never, not even in his wildest dreams, would he have imagined that...but here he was.

He had no plan, but did he really need one? In war, all it came down to was being stronger and smarter and faster than your opponent. After having absorbed the combined powers of the former Juubi, Kurama, Antal Dara, his parents, all the Biju that had been sealed inside of the Juubi in its Gedo Mazo form, and all of the people, demons, and gods that the demonic siblings had slaughtered over the courses of their lives...Naruto certainly wasn't lacking for power, even without adding his own original strengths added in. Intelligence was relative, but on the battlefield, Naruto was nearly on par with Shikamaru's academic talents. Last of all, with the way Cthulhu had grown to the size of a three-story building, Naruto had no doubt that he was fast enough to avoid the Star-Walker's physical attacks.

All that was left was to go out and fight it. All that was left was the ultimate mantra of the ninja.

Kill, or be killed.


	82. The World Is Yours, I

**An early Christmas present for you all! This marks...the next-to-last chapter. Whether I do an epilogue is up in the air; might just tack it on to the ending. We are coming to a (300,000 word) close, folks. Thanks for coming along so far with me!**

 **Review response time!**

 **1\. MetalRasenganBijuuLord: That's some high praise. You sure about that? " _Lost Soul," "_ _Sealed Kunai,"_ and _"An Uzumaki Amongst the Dunes"_ all immediately popped into my head, and there's probably a few more that I can't immediately remember. Still, thanks for joining the ride!**

 **2\. Noahendless: Time and practice is what it takes. You get better by doing, right? You make attempts, you figure out what works. Little by little, you master the craft. Besides...first chapter, second chapter, they were close enough together that it makes no real difference. You've been here for a long-ass time. That deserves some respect (and a thank-you) from me.**

 **3\. aStormInTheNight: Well, if you marathoned it in two days, I certainly _hope_ you like it. Spending that long on something you hate just doesn't seem healthy. In all seriousness, though, I'm glad you enjoy it! You've got this chapter, and the next one, to form your final opinion.**

 **Let's get this trainwreck moving.**

* * *

A great darkness had been cast on the world, courtesy of Naruto's evolution. The red-and-black miasma that surrounded them seemed to permeate the world, weighing down anybody not accustomed to some level of demonic pressure. In this world, Naruto walked freely, staring up at his monolithic enemy; rage kindled inside of him for thousands of years, and almost as many lifetimes, of wrongdoing. Was he marching towards victory?

Or was he marching towards death?

Blood fell down to the corpse-laden streets as the motley group of back-line combatants surged to join their fellow survivors; their shambling world was taking its last ragged breaths, and they would witness the end together. Whether they came from Konoha or Ame, Kumo or Kiri, or anywhere else between, didn't matter. What mattered was that they were _human._ They were still alive, still capable of fighting, still able to stave off death. Former allegiances were of no consequence when they were faced with the threat of total annihilation.

This was the scene Shizune walked towards, staring out with near-hollow eyes. A Star-Spawn was ripped in half before it could reach her, but she didn't flinch in her slow stride.

"I don't hate you. Not anymore." She said to the one who watched her, but the empty silence of his reply let her know how much he believed that statement.

 _Horkew Kamuy_ was a fickle creature, anyway.

Down below, she watched the Sannin and Sakura spearhead their assault in a diamond formation with Jiraiya at the head. Orochimaru was the back of the diamond, with Sakura and Tsunade acting as the middle corners. What was that dark feeling in Shizune's chest? Jealousy, for the star pupil of the Godaime Hokage? Rage, for the fact that her dead mentors had been brought back to life against their will? Self-loathing, for the distance put between herself and those she cared for?

It didn't matter.

 _Ease tension, pass without harm._ Jiraiya's seventh lesson to his Konoha-born Genin team, of which she was the sole survivor. It was a principle applied to falling from great heights, when the chakra exertion to land safely wasn't an option; breaking the surface tension of a lake allowed for the falling party to be more readily taken by the water. The same principle applied when turning rocks into sand or dirt into dust, softening the blow and preventing death.

She redirected a new Star-Spawn's attack, blocking the bladed arm and slipping beneath as the natural weapon continued its path. Shizune turned around, her hand coated in medical chakra, and plunged it inside of the abomination's chest cavity. With a hiss, it slipped off her hand, falling to the stone as blood oozed from its back in death.

She turned around, hawkish eyes spotting Naruto stride ahead of the pack. He lived and breathed to kill the God-King, the Star-Dreamer, Cthulhu; as he walked, one of the aberrant Star-Spawn materialized to stop him. In short order, he rammed into it with a savage headbutt before gripping its head and shearing through its skull with his bare teeth. It cried out with a keening wail as it died, and Naruto kept walking. Every step he took was a scream of defiance against the fate that had been preordained for him. Blood, thunder, death...a new age had dawned for the young demon lord.

Without warning, the vilified shadow by her side had vanished into the darkness. Then, the world around her was gone.

* * *

"You did as well as could be expected, for the reincarnations of myself and my little brother. But I wonder...which of you was supposed to be Izuna?" Madara asked. "Without access to Zenton, this was the destined outcome you strove for. Love for one another, as brothers and as clansmen, will only get you so far."

"And what about love for a husband?" Izumi asked, her form contorting out of the shadows. "What about love for a family?"

"All alone in this world, with no one to watch your back...that's not a way to live." Itachi put his hand on Sasuke's shoulder, the pair still standing despite the severe beating they'd been dealt. Madara dodged the sudden kunai, extended from a hand behind him, as two Sharingan stared out from underneath a leaning tower of off-white hair.

"The wolf..." Madara noted, though he'd never met Hatake Kakashi. "Never far from your master's side. So, why do you stand against me, instead of standing at his side?"

"Because you're the reason my brother died." Kakashi's glare was ominous. "Obito deserves to rest in peace."

"Ah, you're _that_ boy...all grown up. Then you deserve to know, I suppose: that girl you both loved? I was the one responsible for sealing the Sanbi inside of her. I turned her into a bomb. You may have dealt the final blow, and caused Obito to hate you, but I'm the one who killed her."

Those words, said with such a smug smirk of satisfaction, were enough to drive Kakashi to madness. Now, everything became clear: Orochimaru resurrecting him hadn't been chance, or a choice, but the demand of causality. In this shining moment, he could avenge his brother and his beloved. The _Issenjutsu no Meijin_ struck his hand out, cleaving his arm open as Madara's gunbai blocked it.

He didn't care.

His nature as a construct of the _Edo Tensei_ was revealed, pulling off of the gunbai and regenerating.

"Corpse-walker!" Madara hissed. He remembered that art well. The Senju, particularly the insufferable younger brother, were well-known for the _Edo Tensei._ To fight against one's own comrades, forced to kill them after having watched them die the first time...it was a godless, monstrous, soul-searing technique.

"I have infinite chakra to burn. I don't get tired. My wounds all heal. You were strong enough to defeat my student, but can you win against the man who taught him everything he ever learned?"

Historically, they were on relatively even footing. They had both killed one Hokage and one Tsuchikage, they were both heroes of war, they were both succumbing to the Curse of Hatred...Madara had Zenton, and Kakashi was immortal, so they were both god-like in some way, as well. Even if he didn't think he could win, Kakashi was determined to try; at the very least, any delay he gave to Madara's onslaught was time bought for Naruto and the rest of mankind.

Besides, what was the worst that could happen? He was already dead.

* * *

"Now how the fuck are we supposed to beat this bastard?" Suigetsu asked.

"With a lot more effort than I want to put in." Only Shikamaru could have made glaring look lazy. "But...aw, hell, let's do it."

The shadow demon grinned, fiendish bloodlust rising inside of him as he stared down his natural enemy. Was this what Naruto had felt for his entire life, with his very existence opposed by every person he passed on the street? This giddy, nigh-euphoric rush that _demanded_ to be released, for him to sink his hands and teeth inside of another living being? How had Naruto resisted for all those years?

Then, Shikamaru remembered: he hadn't. From childhood, the Rokudaime Hokage had been branded a serial killer, his spare time spent pranking whoever provoked him and escaping the Anbu who chased after him.

"He's gonna get himself killed if he goes in alone...ready when you are."

"D'd'd'g." Ino stuttered out the consonant sounds, nodding.

The two warped with the shadows that stood beneath them, reappearing on either side of the Star-Dreamer as Suigetsu looked on.

"Hey, asshole! What about me?" The water demon growled in irritation before striding forward. His body melted down, joining with the blood that ran freely across the rubble. In the shape of a title wave, he surged forward, condensing down to a razor-thin line that crashed forward in an attempt to bisect the God-King.

It didn't work, a red circle of arcane origin appearing in front of the gigantic mind-flayer that shielded it from Suigetsu's strike. A purple sigil of ancient alchemy shone in the air before the god, stopping Shikamaru's shadow-twisting technique as well.

 **"You,"** Naruto began in irritation, **"are an asshole."**

He dodged the punch that the Star-Dreamer sent downward, practically a meteor in its own right as it left a deep crater in the stone. With a _shunshin,_ Naruto arrived on top of the god's hand, chains of raw youki leaking out from his feet. His quick stride took him up the behemoth's rubbery arm, flesh springing underneath him as he ran.

 **"Make this easy, and go down."** He said, though whether or not he was heard would go unanswered.

A brutal elbow swing, coated in youki, lashed out against the God-King's throat; the deep ravine Naruto had cut through its flesh was slowly erased before his eyes. Naruto wasn't sure how he could tell that the Star-Dreamer's eyes moved to focus on him, with their Byakugan-like coloring, but he felt the weight of its gaze burning into him before being thrown back by psychic force. Then, without warning, his tenuous hold on the natural world was severed.

 **"What? I can't...I can't feel anything! It's all...dark."**

Naruto had been able to deal with his blindness by constant regulation of his Senjutsu powers, allowing him to sense the energy flow of the world around him. With his transformation to demonhood, he'd lost his ability to gather chakra, and his last reserves had run dry. Still, his training as a ninja had developed a sixth sense for danger in the back of his mind. Feeling the oncoming attack, he dodged it by dropping to the ground; a slight breeze told him that the weapon, or technique, had passed over him.

"Naruto!"

That was Tenten's voice. He couldn't see her, couldn't feel the flow of her chakra anymore, but he'd been listening to her speak almost since before she could walk.

 **"Don't!"** He ordered her, even as he heard her swing a sword over him. At least, he thought it was a sword. Whatever the case, his youki burned away the blood that dripped down onto him.

"As if I would ever leave you behind." She grabbed him by his left wrist, pulling him up and forward. "You're my big brother."

Suddenly, he was surrounded by bodies, trying desperately to find some way to tell the world apart from itself. Where did _he_ begin and end? Where did the individual people start and stop their existence? He didn't know. He couldn't know. He was blind, and lost, and he was _alone,_ even surrounded by people fighting for him.

No...that wasn't quite right. He'd led them here, certainly, but each of them was fighting to protect their own wounds. They'd marched on Amegakure because Pein had wronged them in some fashion or another, and his banner had simply been the easiest to rally behind. Now, they were fighting to keep living; they wanted to see the end of the day, and the sunrise tomorrow. To say they were fighting for him was stretching the truth. But what was the truth? Was he even still alive?

Without thinking, he'd taken a kunai made with the Kyuubi's malevolent youki, and rammed it through his hand. There it was, the stinging ache of pain. Proof that he was still alive. The surest, plainest indicator that he had survived up until now, and that he could continue to fight. In his panic over losing his ability to "see" the world around him, he'd remembered what it was like the last time he'd felt that sensation: held captive and experimented on by Orochimaru. Even now, those thoughts hadn't completely subsided, but they weren't real. None of that was real anymore.

Pain was real. He still had hope.

As his infernal youki bubbled up inside of the holes he called his eye sockets, he understood that he still had hope.

* * *

"For the record, current events do _not_ change our ideological opposition to one another." Jiraiya said.

"About our life choices?" Orochimaru asked.

"No. It's been forty years, but I still can't believe you think the sixth generation of Pokemon were good games. As soon as those words left your mouth, I knew we were going to be enemies in life."

"Listen, the exposition they give for the team of children researching Kalos' Pokemon and traveling the world is vital."

"Do you have ANY idea how long it took me to reset for a shiny Chespin? It was disgusting. And don't even get me started on the bullshit that is AZ and his fucking Floette."

"GENTLEMEN!" Tsunade roared. "We are in the middle of a war zone! Besides, we all know that Sinnoh is the best region."

"Your taste is almost worse than Orochimaru's." Jiraiya deadpanned. "The best regions, in order, are Kanto, Hoenn, Alola, Johto, Isshu, Sinnoh, and then Kalos. I can accept that some people prefer shuffling those top four around, but keeping fifth and sixth generations at the bottom of the hierarchy is practically mandatory."

"How can you say that? Cynthia is perfect! How can you malign Garchomp and Spiritomb and the evolutions of the Kanto Pokemon like that?"

"A game is only as good as its antagonists, and Cyrus is terrible." Orochimaru said, agreeing with Jiraiya.

"Exactly. The only things Sinnoh really did right were involved with the metagame, introducing entry hazards and finalizing the physical-special split."

"I'm having you both killed for treason." Tsunade growled.

Sakura fought on in silence, doing her best to ignore the Sannin's banter...mostly because they were all wrong. Johto was superior, she reminded herself as her kunai tagged one of the Star-Spawn through its belly. Any game that gave you _those_ options for starters was clearly just a cut above the rest. Up ahead, with some space cleared around her, she looked up and saw something she never believed she'd see again: Hatake Kakashi, in the flesh, fighting seriously. He'd died in Konan's explosion, before she'd managed to reach Konoha, and so she hadn't seen him since before she and the others had left on their mission to rescue Naruto.

Alongside Itachi, Sasuke, Shizune and the woman she'd briefly known as Maya, the silver-haired Jounin was leading the effort against Madara. Together, the five of them were keeping the Uchiha warlord at bay. With his regenerating body, Kakashi could afford to endure as many cuts, stabs, punches, burns, and anything else that could be thrown at him. Madara, with his Rinnegan, proved elusive despite being surrounded. With his Rinnegan, the eldest Uchiha repelled all attacks. With his Zenton, he struck down his enemies. And yet, Kakashi would not die.

With his combination of the short- and long-range _Kamui,_ he was a battlefield wraith, and his wide array of techniques had been on full display.

"Doton: Tachiagaru Kiba! Futon: Ochiru Kiba!"

The two-technique press, _Rising Fangs_ and _Falling Fangs,_ covered a wide circle while hitting its full area. Even Madara was hard-pressed to avoid the full blow, wheeling away from the blast area. This time, though, there was a marked difference: Kakashi's last attack had cut across the back of Madara's hand, rising up to dent into his armor. Now that he'd been wounded, with proof that he was mortal, it bolstered the last three living Uchiha.

Or, at least, technically, they were the three who hadn't died. Madara, after all, was certainly alive and kicking. The rapidly-closing hole in Kakashi's chest denoted that much; the former Anbu captain showed no emotion or surprise at the injury, and failed to give his enemy the satisfaction of hearing him cry out in pain.

"Be gone with the thunder." Sasuke said, his voice aching in pain as his tired muscles continued to move.

The same beast of lightning that he'd rode into battle, the Kirin of legend, came roaring down from the heavens as Madara gathered his chakra.

 _Susano-o._ When Madara summoned the gigantic, burning skeleton, his four Sharingan-touting assailants did as well. They were bruised, and battered, and worn down to their bones, but their job wasn't finished; what exactly were they waiting for? They didn't know, but this was going to be settled the old way. Matters of the clan, handled by the clan, no matter what. Madara remembered those days. Itachi did, too.

The swing of his _Totsuka no Ken_ was blocked by the armor of Madara's ghostly protector, though Sasuke's shortbow pierced into the apparition's skeletal chest. Madara roared in rage and anguish, frustrated by his lack of progress. Even if they were members of his clan, superior to the Senju and everybody else, he was still supposed to be the strongest! The best! The most capable! He was the one who should be leading them into the future they'd desired for so long!

His _Susano-o_ slammed its fists into the ground, creating a high-strength shockwave that ripped the ground out from underneath his foes' feet. A great sword, beautiful and terrible in its power, came down to strike at his unprotected enemy: Shizune. When Kakashi moved to guard her with his body, and Itachi's _Susano-o_ aimed to block Madara's sword with his own, its trajectory changed; in moments, he'd beheaded his enemies' Mangekyou-powered summons, leaping over them to stand beside the almighty Cthulhu in its aberrant, holy, splendor.

"You _will_ bow to me!" His rage echoed across the demon plane of the Eclipse that Antal Dara had summoned before his death. "Zenton no Fuin! Shinseina Kioku no Kusari! Shi O Kowasu Tensou! Joushou!"

 _ **Holy Chain of Memories**_

 _ **Death-Breaking Transfer**_

 _ **Ascent**_

The _Susano-o_ reached out with one skeletal hand, its burning chakra making contact with the King of the Gods who had traveled the stars for thousands of years and slept among them for thousands more. The seal spread out across the Star-Dreamer, multicolored lines carving deeply into its skin and making its rubbery flesh burn. It screamed, aloud and psychically, as it was paralyzed by the power of the seal and incapable of doing anything else.

"The wheel is broken! I'll take your power, and make it mine! Fall to me, and I will break this world before I remake it into a new one! A better one!"

As the Star-Walker disappeared from the world of the living, Madara dropped his _Susano-o,_ and watched passively as the corpse of the man Cthulhu had possessed hit the ground.

"Naruto!" Madara shouted. "Come out and face me!"

Slowly, a path cleared, and Naruto moved forward with the slow determination of a man who understood his duty. The Wheel had always determined a chain of victories, on the narrative scale, before his ultimate defeat. Each of his past incarnations had been able to beat each of Madara's...but those prior selves hadn't been able to use the power of gods, while Naruto had almost always had the strength of a demon on his side. With his eyes closed, he made his way out of the tunnel of human bodies. So many of them touched him, with a finger or a brush of their hand. Did they understand what was coming? This had always been his fate.

 **"Stay safe, Struggler."** Hulasikali Wala said. **"As long as the wind is at your back, the rest of us will be."**

"You've got this! You, you've _gotta_ win this!" Chouji yelled.

"You've lost your strength, father. Let us go instead!" Kouga pleaded, but his cries fell on ears that would not listen.

"For Iwa. For Kumo." Naruto said, pausing in his stride for a moment. "For Kiri. For Suna. For Konoha, the rest of the world...and for Zabuza. For my children, for your children, for _their_ children. None of you will go in my place, or get in my way."

"Naruto..."

It was Tayuya. Of course it would be Tayuya who wrapped her arm around his waist, came in close, and held him tight for a final time. He leaned his head down, kissing her forehead.

"With you by my side, there's nothing I can't do." He said. "I'm so, so sorry."

They let go of one another, and Madara waited until Naruto stood in front of him.

"Like a ram to the sacrificial altar..." He intoned, savoring the feeling of his imminent victory.

"Yeah, about that. See, rams aren't just hard-headed. They're assholes, and if you're not careful..." Naruto's eyelids separated. "You're going to be the one laying on the ground."

Cold blue eyes looked out upon the world before them, taking in the sight of Madara and his Rinnegan with little concern. With his sword on his back, and a smile on his face, Naruto would stare down the archaic idea of fate, and he would kick it square in the nuts. He could win this.

He believed it.


	83. The World Is Yours, II

**The final (non-epilogue) chapter, and I have decided that I'll do an epilogue. This is it, folks! Last call. I'm marking the story complete after I post this! Before I do, though...there's a few people who I'd like to give some thanks to:**

 **1\. Noahendless & te-nellis, (had to avoid the period in your name, since FFN thought it was a website,) who've been here since the beginning, and whose dedication to, "great story, keep going," _did_ in fact make me keep writing; remember those months I'd disappeared for after my ex and I had a bad break? Or when I burned the shit out of my hand and gave up on just about everything for a few weeks? It wasn't just a love for the craft that made me come back to this story. It was the fact that there were people waiting to read the ending.**

 **2\. jtcr & MetalRasenganBijuuLord, and everybody else who thought this was good enough when they found it closer to the end, and they just trucked through the entire story in a couple days...because that's the kind of vote of confidence that authors love to get. There's something to be said for the people who started with you, and something else to be said for the people who joined later and just couldn't get enough of your work.**

 **Last but not least, I'd like to thank OneLunchMan. Not only for reading this story, but for disappearing for copious amounts of time at once, making me worry that something happened to him. Also for getting on Overwatch, and dealing with my bullshit there. Never forget:**

Me, as Reinhardt: "Just get behind my shield."  
OLM: *gets behind my shield*  
Me: *puts my shield down to use Firestrike*  
OLM: *gets sniped*  
OLM: "Melkor, what the fuck."

 **I wish I could say that it's only happened once. At least he knows what he's getting into every time he groups with me, though.**

 **I've stalled for long enough, though. Now, for the grand finale! The moment you've all been waiting for!**

 **THE TRAINWRECK IS MOVING!**

* * *

Dark miasma swirled around Naruto's body, the once-sapphire hue of his old eyes having brightened itself up to an icy blue-grey tint.

"Do you have any last words?" Madara asked. "Before you lose your life, and any chance to speak them?"

 **"Your arrogance is astounding, little brother."**

"Little? In every iteration, I've been the elder!" Madara said indignantly. "I've been the superior!"

 **"You killed Antal Dara. One of them, at least. I killed a second. You've had more than seventy years to mull over the memories he left you. It's not you who repeats the cycle, it's _him._ He, the little brother who could never escape the shadow of the elder's power...so he accepted the power that was offered to him by a damned and vicious god, and he drove me to the darkness. His perfect, shining body, obtained by the sacrifice of his family. Our parents, our friends and loved ones, and my beloved children. To do it, he caused an Eclipse, just like this one. The hand of god reached down, and granted his desire: power, immeasurably beyond my reach. I cried out in anguish, and the Great Darkness answered my call. He granted my wish, returned my sons and daughters to me as demons whose combined power exceeded my own. And, in return, all he asked of me was the only thing I had left to give: my humanity. My soul, for the strength to put an end to the terror the new gods were wreaking on the world."**

Naruto scowled in distaste, the assault of memories streamlined into his awareness over the course of the last several minutes. It was like absorbing the experience of a _Kage Bunshin,_ but taking in thousands of years of knowledge instead of five minutes. If he hadn't been a demon, the intellectual overflow would likely have killed him. As it stood, though, he finally understood the full scope of the millennia-long war between Cthulhu's earth-born pantheon and the demons who had been cut off from Makai.

 **"It wasn't a difficult choice."**

"I am not some pale imitation!"

Naruto didn't respond verbally, choosing instead to shrug before his body shifted lower to the ground. Eschewing jutsu, he lunged with brute speed, one hand enough to rip off the Uchiha elder's armor by its fastened straps. Madara responded with a skin-breaking punch, wild fury in his ripple-patterned eyes before the _Shinra Tensei_ ripped Naruto off of him and into the air. The longer their battle took, though, the more power he would assimilate from those he'd killed. Buried inside his hate, he'd locked away the things that were important, because that had been the only way to keep them safe from his torment. Then, he'd lost the ability to distinguish _what was_ from _what had been,_ and he'd paid a high price. But now, he was free.

So, too, was his mentored malevolence.

 **"He was right, even if I didn't understand it at the time."** Naruto said. **"As long as the sun still rises, and the wind continues to blow...Zenton: Za Warudo."**

An orange circle of alchemy spun in the air behind Naruto's right hand, and all movement ceased around the blond as he looked out of his peripherals. The last of the Star-Spawn were in the middle of their defeat, and Madara was frozen in time. Antal Dara had taken years to completely master the art, his own specialty among the members who sat around the Heavenly Throne. Naruto had assimilated the same level of skill in a matter of minutes. In that brief moment, Naruto understood why people from other nations had all despised the Uchiha and their Sharingan; using powers that you hadn't taken the time to master, having stolen them in seconds from their creators, was absolutely something that would enrage your enemies. Thankfully, though, Naruto only had one of those left. Three long strides and a _shunshin_ brought Naruto behind his adversary, who he slammed head-first into the ground.

And then, time resumed.

"What?" Madara gasped out the question that more than one onlooker was asking in the back of their minds.

 **"Your gift to me, little brother."** Naruto said. **"From your death at my hands. It would be easy to kill you with it, I would just need to use it one more time...but that would hardly be fair, or fun. Stand and fight, White Hawk. The Black Swordsman has come, on this new Eclipse, to make you pay for everything you've taken away."**

"Zenton: Tenchi Baku!"

 _That_ didn't sound good.

The explosive blasts from Madara's technique ripped into Naruto's body, carving into his scarred flesh with abandon; a deep track appeared on his chest, with the entire front of his ribcage gone. Naruto had seen a lot of things in his life, but he had to confess, he'd never seen his own lungs before. He attempted to raise his arms to guard himself while he regenerated, but only his left arm answered. His right arm had been torn off by the explosion. At that point, it was almost worth wondering how Naruto still had a face. Youki ran out from the end of the wound, pulling the severed limb to its owner before the demonic energy fused them back together.

Naruto snarled, throwing two kunai lazily to either side of Madara. As the first passed high, Naruto used his fundamental _"bunshin kawarimi"_ to get behind the Uchiha and make an attack with his burning fangs. The attack ended up going nowhere, but it didn't need to. In his right hand was his old faithful, that had seen him through thick and thin, now powered by youki and at a range that Madara couldn't dodge.

 **"Rasengan."** The tumultuous sphere of rotating youki ripped into the bottom of Madara's ribcage, grinding like a series of tiny saws that screamed in protest.

Madara pulled away before the technique got through his ribs, but there was a fear in his eyes now that hadn't been present. He'd been wounded by someone who, according to every revolution of the cycle that Antal Dara's memories had shown, would die easily. The wound itself wasn't too great a problem, he'd certainly been hit with worse; it was what the wound represented. Naruto would never let up, he would give no quarter, and he would keep fighting as long as he could continue to move. Madara would have to give everything he had, and possibly more, in order to win.

"Zenton: Iyashi!" Madara said, rushing through his hand seals and allowing himself to heal.

 **"Ken no Jigoku."** This was no jutsu, but a demonic power, placed in Naruto's willing hands. A blue-and-purple block of energy slammed down from the sky, and only Madara's reflexes saved him from the sure-kill attack. Naruto had assumed he'd miss, but it was worth a try anyway.

"Zenton: Sora O Moyasu Hikari!"

 _The Light That Burns the Sky._ An unerring blast of heat and flame, light and lightning, that ripped right into Naruto with the force of a thousand suns. The sky above them distorted, all that heat forcing the water cycle to begin anew with the evaporation it caused. Rain came down again, heavier than ever, as lightning split the ground between the combatants. In this world, where time and space played audience to the millennia-long dreams of the human heart, they fought for the only things they had left to keep.

They brought their weapons forward, Madara's gunbai swinging down as Naruto's falx rose up without a second thought for defense. The bladed war-fan cut deeply through Naruto's chest, passing straight down through his left clavicle and into the lung before it became lodged in his body. The slash that ran across Madara's gut was far from shallow, but there had been more resistance there than Naruto thought that he should have felt. It was almost the same way that the Star-Dreamer's flesh had been, as he'd run up its arm.

That technique Madara had used to destroy the God-King. Had that emulated demonic growth, allowed him to absorb its power? Naruto's mind raced, blood leaking down as a reminder that he was still mortal for the time being.

"Naruto!" He heard Tayuya scream.

When was the last time...he'd _really_ fought one-on-one with someone? Had it been Yagura, almost a year and a half ago? That had been the last time he'd cut loose. He'd lost, after he thought that he'd exhausted every option that he thought he had left. Was he out of options? Could he last long enough to use whatever he'd come up with? The blade in his arm _hurt,_ like almost nothing he'd felt before. Somehow, it was worse than the pain that Orochimaru had dealt out to him. Only two things had kept him alive in that hellhole: Kurama's presence inside of him, and all of the anger he could summon up. In striving forward to fight Madara, in embracing his love for Tayuya and the world, he'd abandoned the only thing that had allowed him to come this far.

Was that how it ended? His unwillingness to reveal his true self on the battlefield would kill him? He would lose, because he was finally capable of loving again? No, that couldn't be how the world would burn. He'd regained his eyes, but lost his sight. The world around him was so cold...it was the rain, soaking him to the bone.

Madara backed away from his chosen prey, and Naruto sank to his knees as the gunbai stopped giving him a force to lean into. He dropped his falx, his hands reaching out to stop himself from falling flat on his face.

 **"A long time ago, before you were born,"** Naruto began, just loud enough for Madara to hear him, **"a monster found me. It asked me a question: that there were two paths I could walk down, but what choice would I make? One path led to the light, to my family, to a life of peaceful endeavors undertaken with love. The other one led to blood, death, instability, and uncertainty. Every time I've been reincarnated, for thousands of years, that question always ends up being asked of me in some way or another. Every time, I've chosen love. Every time, I've chosen duty. And now, at the end of it all...it's because I care about the notion of peace that I have to wage war. It's because I love them, that I have to hate you. So that they can walk in the light, I will stay in the shadows. When he spoke to me, that day, the Great Darkness gave me a gift that I could never repay him for."**

His hands came up, as he stood up, and pain washed over him once again as the light of the world disappeared. His hands came down, and his demonic blade was once again within his grasp. He reached back with his healed left arm, slipping off the hitai-ate that had come to represent so much of his existence in the time since he'd found it. He'd been younger then, full of hopes and dreams for the future that had slowly been ground out of him with the fervor that only an uncaring world can muster. Now, his entire existence was comprised of a single desire: to kill. The hitai-ate sped backwards in the rain, thrown with a marksman's precision as Oboro caught it. That artifact had belonged to the Uzumaki, and it would stay with the Uzumaki. One of his children, or perhaps one of their children, would wear it some day, but he couldn't anymore. The world wasn't wide enough.

And so he walked forward, never to become human again.

"The gods chose me!" Madara shouted. "How _dare_ you defy their will, brother? You should be thankful that you even got to play a role in my story...but we'll finish here! The same as it's always been! You and I, opposed, alone, and it will end just like it has every time: with my victory!"

The hated enemies charged forward once again, this time with Madara taking the undercutting sweep while Naruto struck down from above...but this time, Naruto turned. This time, his blade came down on the gunbai that had survived more than a century of use, and splintered the wood after ripping through the metal. The useless fragments fell from Madara's hands, and as Naruto redirected his sword to swing into Madara's face, the Uchiha scion caught it. With a charge of Naruto's youki, his falx nearly doubled in size, and Madara was forced to perform a _shunshin_ to avoid being impaled on the sweeping up-facing point.

 **"I am seated at the right hand of the father."** A group of special triple-pronged kunai came into Naruto's free hand, and he shotgunned them out in Madara's general direction with abandon before sinking one into the ground beside him. **"He comes again in glory to judge the living, and the dead."**

The _Hiraishin_ was the most-feared technique in the history of Ninjutsu. With relative impunity, its user could appear at any marked point within their sensory range using a mix of the _shunshin,_ Raiton chakra, and high-level Fuinjutsu. Though he'd used an imitation by combining the _bunshin, shunshin,_ and _kawarimi,_ the most basic ninja arts, he'd practiced the technique among the confidence of his trusted friends in the Rookie Twelve. Now, with demonic powers at his disposal, was there a more apt time to pay homage to the man who'd brought him into being?

Raw natural energy poured into him, tainted by the Eclipse's demonic influence and perfectly tailored to his new physiology. It was an unnatural high, a rush that bubbled up in his veins and lit unquenchable flames in his newly-hollowed eyes. Naruto's muscles surged, one wild leap carrying him an inhuman length as he closed the distance between himself and his target. The instant Madara moved to dodge, Naruto appeared at his side after using the _Hiraishin,_ cleaving into Madara's ribcage before pulling away. Suddenly he was behind the Uchiha, kicking the century-old man forward and ripping open his right collarbone. His position changed every second, fast enough to blur the air and leave an afterimage, and the small injuries were piling up amid larger slashes and broad cuts.

Quietly, as he did his best to murder Madara, Naruto reminded himself of all the things that had brought him to this point. He remembered a conversation with Tayuya, about not being ready to become Hokage because he wouldn't be able to live with the blood of subordinates on his hands. That had been in Kumo, before his time as a science experiment and the way it had shattered his worldview. He remembered the few idle days they'd had, spent together for familiar company. Tayuya had sacrificed her life for him, and he'd sacrificed his life for her; there was nothing that could keep them apart but the cold finality of death. Meanwhile, Madara's age had come and gone. He was a relic of the old world, last bastion of a dead era that refused to go quietly.

"Zenton: Hokuto no Ken!" Madara growled in rage, though Naruto avoided a direct hit from the hand-to-hand technique by sweeping Madara's fist out from its intended target. From Antal Dara's memoirs and experience, it was better to avoid that technique altogether; a direct hit, landing on the _tenketsu,_ would cause the target's body to explode.

Naruto had thought his pattern was random enough, but he'd forgotten Madara's Rinnegan had originally come from the Sharingan, and thus retained its predictive abilities. The glancing blow had cracked Naruto's jaw, but the damage had healed up again in the next few seconds; the accelerated regeneration from being a full-fledged demon was coming in handy.

 **"Almost got me."** He shrugged off the near-death experience, distance once again between the two of them, ready to rumble again.

"It's not over yet! Zenton: Kaze no-"

Madara was interrupted by a change in his body's physical structure, proving Naruto right. The technique he'd used to kill the Star-Dreamer had, in fact, been meant to emulate the way demons absorbed power from those they killed...but Madara wasn't a demon, and he wasn't a god, despite having killed two of them. His flesh mottled down to a color that seemed to mix grey and purple, with green veins running along the outside. On his face, small tentacles had grown, wiggling with minds of their own.

"Z'z'z'zn't." The word wouldn't come out right, as Madara tried to speak in every language his mind had absorbed across all of his incarnations.

"Z'z'zn't." He tried, and failed, again. A _Kage Bunshin_ took Naruto's place, the _Hiraishin_ once again taking him behind Madara...who, finally, seemed to have sorted things out.

"Nilgh'ri Air'luhh: Fm'latgh uh'enyth ot shugg ng gn'th ng yogagl!" The Deep Speech sounded grim, harsh, and foreign on a human tongue, but its effectiveness couldn't be denied.

A giant, shining dragon materialized, beautiful and glorious as it moved to fight Naruto...or, at least, where Naruto had been standing. Only a clone was there, now, as Naruto followed every teaching he'd ever been given.

 _A knife in the dark can save a hundred lives during the day._ Higurashi had told him.

 **"I understand...father."** He whispered to himself. With the blade his first mentor had given to him, he came from behind Madara's back, and aimed high. With the weapon powered by his demonic sibling, his first incarnation's eldest son, he swung from the side. Naruto poured thousands of generations of built-up rage into what would hopefully be, he determined, the final time he brought his sword to bear.

First to fall was Madara's body. Second, Madara's head. The shining dragon of elder magic vanished just as suddenly as it had appeared, and the dark miasma surrounding the captives of the Eclipse had begun to evaporate. Down from the portal to Makai came a beautiful monster in human shape, six golden-white wings and a goat's horns on display. This was the Fallen One, the Morning Star, the Great Darkness. On instinct, Naruto and Hulasikali Wala bowed their heads.

 _"Thou did as thy pact decreed. Congratulations. Now what, o heavenly lord? Thou hath broken the wheel of ages. Thou hath ended thine blood feud. Now thou, and thou alone, possess the power of every god...but men and demons, as well, are in thy blood. Thy choice?"_

 **"My choice is my own, and you already know the answer. You gave me the freedom to choose, despite the fact that we both knew it was an illusion."**

 _"As thou wilt, my child. I will wait until the end of days."_

The Great Darkness retreated, receding back to his throne in Makai before the portal was closed. With that, the Eclipse ended, and all that remained of human life on earth stood in the epicenter of Amegakure's ruins. Everyone sat in stunned silence for a moment, a little alarmed by the abruptness of it all, but Kiba came to the rescue!

"WE DID IT!" He shouted, and Akamaru howled with joy beside him. In no time at all, every living human was celebrating their survival.

Naruto just smiled, energy bubbling up in his eyes to reveal a Rinnegan of his own; it was a final gift from the father-who-was-not, and his time-lost son from the Warring Clans Era. The _true_ father of the current Rei and Kouga. That man's name had still been Naruto, another incarnation for him to give thanks towards...and his gift, a sign of holy power, for the only man left who could inherit the Heavenly Throne.

He was bowled over from the back, tackled in a hug from behind by his girlfriend...his wife-to-be. His children rushed forward, not content to leave themselves out of the picture as they unceremoniously flopped down onto his head and legs. The four got up together, smiling and laughing. No matter what anybody tried to say, they were a family, and nothing would change that.

They had won. Stories would be told for generations; songs would be made, of a time gone by, when one blond boy had risen above and beyond the call of duty. For a world that knew peace, there was no greater treasure than to have left war behind. Love and laughter would lead the way into the next generation, and the one beyond that.

A new day had come.


	84. Hallowed Be Thy Name (Epilogue)

**Those who were there, in that brief moment, could have sworn that the trainwreck had moved.**

* * *

"Say cheese!" Haku said, the camera in his hands snapping a series of photographs as a bulb flashed. "Alright, there we go."

Naruto relaxed his face, the infant in his arms cradled lovingly. He looked beside him, and saw Tayuya looking down at their younger child with a soft smile on her face. They weren't even a year and a half old yet, just over fifteen months, and today was the second anniversary of the Battle of Amegakure. At least, that was the official name for it among the civilians, who had no explanation for the natural disasters that had taken place in the shell-shocked city-state. The ninja who'd fought that day referred to the one-day war as _Tarmon Gai'don_ , which meant, _"Last Battle,"_ in the lost language of the Jie's ancestors. Tenten had been the first to use it, and the phrase had caught on.

The elder Rei and Kouga looked between their infant counterparts and their parents, matching smiles on their faces; while Rei's Rinnegan matched her father's, Kouga's eyes had lost their pupils and began radiating with a soft blue light. It was the Tenseigan, a trait that he had shared with Shikamaru ever since the Nara had become a demon, and then gained holy power through his murder of Nyarlathotep.

 **"Thanks, Haku."** Naruto said. **"Sorry for bothering you with it. How's Yugito?"**

"Good...but she's kept me busy."

"I know what that's code for." Oboro laughed, standing above the rest of her family. "Don't tell me you're onto a third already?"

"I feel like she's competing with Mei, sometimes. I'm glad for her, and glad to be with her, but..."

"Yeah, I'll _bet_ you are." Tayuya snorted.

 **"Fire and ice, as the saying goes?"**

Haku laughed at that.

"That's one way to put it. You know, I wouldn't trade her for the world." He said, a smile gracing his face.

 **"Did you hear that Kankuro found a couple survivors of Suna's massacre, out in the desert?"** Naruto asked. **"You remember Taiso Renji from the Chunin Exams, right? Sasuke beat him for the championship, and there was a little boy with him."**

"Don't tell me...the 'Banchou?' What was his name, Hiiro?" Tayuya asked. "He survived?"

 **"Apparently, he has a knack for riding Shai-Hulud. Never would have guessed."**

Nobody else would have, either. More surprising than their survival of Pein's sacking of Sunagakure was the fact that, for more than two years, they had lived in the desert with no shelter or resources; left to their own devices, they had carved out a living.

"Any luck with Kumo or Iwa?" Haku asked, wondering.

Naruto just closed his eyes and shook his head, because there was nothing else he could say about that. Itachi was relatively unrepentant over the part he'd played in annihilating those villages off the map, but what could anybody do about it? He was one of the most powerful ninja on earth.

"Another day, another cause for joy. The sun is shining, the birds are singing...what's not to love?" Haku asked. "It's been a while since we've all been together, hasn't it? We should celebrate with everybody, all together."

"Same as last year? We can do that, I think." Tayuya said. "Hanabi and Konohamaru like excuses to watch after the twins."

* * *

"Hard to believe it's been two years." Shikamaru said, staring at the newest memorial stone of Training Ground Seven.

Larger than the previous three, it held the name of every ninja who'd fallen at _Tarmon Gai'don_ , as well as the events preceding it. In particular, his eyes were drawn to the middle of the alphabet, where his mother's name sat. Near to it was Zabuza's name, which was no doubt the focus of Haku's attention. Also engraved were the names of the Sannin, Kakashi, Higurashi, and Nagato.

The Rookie Twelve, along with the Sabaku siblings, the Sound Three, Darui, Yugito, Kurotsuchi, Mei, and Sai, were all gathered together...minus Naruto, Tayuya, and their family.

"Hard to believe it's _only_ been two years." Darui said. "Feels like we're a lifetime away from that day. So much happened, so many people died...and the world feels different. With all the ninja in the world consolidated into two cities, on friendly terms with one another, nobody is on edge. We still practice our jutsu, but the entire concept of shinobi is for utilization in combat. Without war, what purpose do we serve?"

"Maybe it's better to let those techniques die out, then. In a peaceful world, there's no need for ninja." Sasuke said.

"You all sound like old philosophers." Shino noted.

"G'g'g'd." Ino nodded her head in agreement.

"Geez, why are you all worrying about what comes next? Just appreciate what we have, because we have it! It's there to be enjoyed!" Kiba said, his tree trunk of an arm curling around Ino's waist.

"That may be so," Sai began, Hinata standing next to him, "but it's not that simple. We were born, bred, and raised to be killing machines. What happens when a tool has no wielder, and beyond that, no purpose? On top of it all, Taicho's constant presence has given more than one of us some permanent complications regarding bloodlust...like the low-level demonic radiation is slowly converting all of us into demons, the same way he was."

A light breeze passed them by, and Kurotsuchi looked up to the clouds. Far to the north, her ancestral home was nothing but rubble and ruins. No matter how long it had been, that would always hurt. She'd traveled back, after _Tarmon Gai'don_ was over with, and had hardly walked through the gate before turning around and leaving; nothing but pain waited for her, there, in the halls of the mountain kings.

"I'm not sure I'd want things to go back to the way they were, though." Temari said. "At least, like this, we're free to live how we want to."

"Yeah, sure, but I'm not going to stop improving my technique." Suigetsu grinned, his back to the field's exit.

 **"Good."** Naruto's voice came from behind the water demon, spooking him into a jump. **"Because you're a demon, and I'm going to need that strength on my side, some day."**

"What?" Karin asked.

Haku, Tayuya, and the elder Uzumaki twins all stood with the hero of their war against the gods.

 **"You can feel it, can't you? All of you? There's a never-ending pressure in your blood, and it's driving you towards violence. A march that never ends, a song that's never played...and it torments you, doesn't it?"**

"Where are you going with this?" Shino asked.

 **"Years from now, I'll have left this world behind, but not in death. I won't force any of you to come with me, but I'd hate to leave you behind. Just because we saved this world, _our_ world, doesn't mean that others don't need our help. An Antal Dara from another world crossed the border into ours after Madara killed the original one. For the rest of eternity, I'll lead a crusade against the gods."**

"You just don't know how to rest on your laurels, huh?" Yugito laughed. "Now that you've saved the world, and brought peace to it, you're going to go off to fight all over again?"

"I'm in." Suigetsu said with a smirk. "All I know how to do is swing my sword, and if I follow you, then that's all I'll need to do. Best boss I could have asked for!"

"D'g'g'd't." Ino smiled, looking up to Kiba's burly form and nodding.

"Yeah, yeah. You know better than to think that I'll let you leave me in the dust, Naruto!" The Inuzuka said. Pointedly, he had ignored the names of his mother and sister on the memorial stone. He knew by now, that particular wound would never close.

"You took up the Sandaime's torch after all." Itachi appeared through the use of the _Kamui,_ with Izumi at his side. "I still owe you a debt, Lord Hokage. For saving my brother's life...lead on."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the Uchiha's sudden appearance, their matching Rinnegan separated by thin strands of fate.

 **"None of you have to make a decision now. None of you _should_ make a decision now. I just want you all to know that I've made up my mind on what comes next. I...I wish I could relax and just enjoy it, but I can't. I lost that privilege."**

"You haven't lost anything, father." Kouga said, putting a hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"Maybe a little ego, but that's all." Rei agreed.

"You should know by now, none of us are going to be okay with you just leaving us all behind." Tenten said. "Not me, not Neji or Lee...nobody."

 **"She's right."** Hulasikali Wala agreed.

"Yosh! A brand new adventure! I can't wait!" The only thing that kept Lee from jumping in joy were the steady hands of his more-reserved teammates.

"Count on me being there." Darui said.

 **"Yeah, yeah, I get it."** Naruto couldn't help the grin that crept up on his face. **"Twenty-five years. Enough to watch our children grow strong, and be sure that they'll find a way in this world. Now, anyway...Golden Dragon?"**

That was it, the restaurant that the Rookie Twelve and Tayuya had eaten at after the mission that had taken Naruto all the way to the Valley of the End, four years ago. It had been rebuilt, and remained as much a staple of Konoha's fine dining as it was before Konan had annihilated the village. The assembled ninja all agreed readily, since that restaurant had become their gathering point for large outings as a group.

That didn't mean that Naruto wouldn't sneak off to indulge himself with some ramen from the Ichiraku family's stand. Despite the vast amounts of money that Naruto had thrown in their direction over the last decade and a half, the father-daughter pair had never sought to go beyond their humble working conditions. For whatever reason, ever since _Tarmon Gai'don,_ the noodle soup had tasted better than before. Whether it was simply the fact that he was able to have it again, after going so long without, or if demons inherently craved salt for their diets, was a mystery...still, he _had_ made Kurama a promise, and even if the Kyuubi wasn't alive to hold him to it any longer? He didn't go back on his word.

For a brief moment, Naruto thought he could hear a deep rumbling in the back of his mind that resembled his consumed inner demon's laughter...but no, it couldn't be. Right? Of course not. Even Naruto couldn't believe that.

One by one, the group walked off, leaving Naruto to stare at the veritable wall of names that had been carved into his mind. Each one of the men and women who'd had the misfortune to get their name left on that slab of metal would, forever, have their blood on his hands. They had gone willingly, fought for their own reasons...but even so, they had died because he had ordered them to their deaths. Though he'd never been much of an academic, he'd taken to making an attempt to memorize every single name on the alphabetized list in front of him.

He was almost to the end of clan names that started with "B."

When he left his world behind, he determined, he would carry the thoughts of the dead with him. A memory of times gone by, to carry into the days and years ahead.

* * *

"You've kept me waiting, Naruto." Orochimaru's sinister voice emanated from his underground home, alone in Hi no Kuni except for his visitor. "How did you know where to find me? Or was it just a lucky guess?"

 **"I came for my father."** Naruto growled through gritted teeth. **"Not the one who brought me into this world...the one who left it before he could see me again."**

 _Ninja don't get marked graves,_ he'd told his sister, when they'd been forced to leave Higurashi's still-warm corpse behind. The echo of those words had haunted him ever since.

"Awfully sentimental of you, for a demon whose only love is whatever battlefield he stands on."

 **"As though you would understand anything about sentiment."** Naruto countered. **"We could both teach you a lot about that."**

"Both?" Orochimaru asked, before watching Tayuya step out of the darkness.

"I've come for my throne." The redhead said flatly, without any trace of malice or worry in her voice. In fact, she almost seemed...bored.

 **"You'll have to forgive me. The same way you needed my flesh and blood for your experiments, on your path to immortality, I need your invincible body."**

Deep within Tayuya's mind, inside of the seal that kept the demon turtle Isobu confined within her body, she felt something pull at her consciousness; it was the last of Jiraiya's chakra, left as an imprint after he'd finished saving her life by turning her into a Jinchuriki. Bit by bit, it left her body, flowing out across the room until it struck Orochimaru where he stood.

"Wha-" The White Snake began to ask, but the seal activated by Jiraiya's last breath had frozen him in place.

 **"In the old days, before the gods died...my original self fused with Yggdrasil, the World Tree, to keep his brother, Antal Dara, from accessing his full might. Yggdrasil's trunk and branches acted as pathways to other worlds, and it was destroyed when the Juubi took it for his own. Only a single seed survived, which allowed the second Antal Dara to invade our world, and he nearly succeeded in breaking it."**

Naruto held a shining blue sphere aloft, the same one that had imprisoned his children and his grandmother within its depths. The Gate had found its way to Uzushiogakure, possibly as a way for the deceased boundary god to mock his elder brother's family. Now, though, it would fulfill its purpose, and it would act as the Key. Orochimaru was frozen, unable to move or speak as he looked on in horror. With no remorse, Naruto shoved the gem-like orb inside Orochimaru's mouth.

 **"Your indestructible body will allow the new World Tree to become unbreakable. You won't die...I don't think...but you'll be trapped forever in this place. Paralyzed, rooted to the ground, unable to die. I wonder, Orochimaru, how long will it take for you to break? Not that you're sane in the first place, but you're not insane, either. Yet. The trunk and roots will grow around you, and time will pass you by."**

"As long as the sun still rises, you'll be stuck." Tayuya added. "We thought for a long time about what way of killing you would be best. It took him some convincing, but I like this idea better. Sure, I won't get to watch your dead body go cold in front of me, but you'll be going through as much suffering as you made us endure. You brought this on yourself."

 **"Your strength will live on, inside of the World Tree. Right now, it's draining your chakra to power its growth, and it will keep taking more chakra as time goes by. Sounds like something you did to me, funnily enough."**

The grin on Naruto's face was as vindictive as they came, filled with practically nothing but the feeling of revenge. Tayuya, however, showed nothing but passive judgement. Did she truly feel nothing? Had her time in Naruto's company truly desensitized her to the magnitude of the punishment that they were doling out?

Of course not, but she wasn't going to give Orochimaru the satisfaction of her reactions. She wanted him to be tormented, for all eternity, in an attempt to guess what she'd been thinking in that moment.

 **"We'll be seeing you soon enough."** Naruto said, before the Uzumaki husband and wife turned around and left the paralyzed White Snake to his fate as an immortal. They went to gather Jie Higurashi's long-undisturbed armor and skeletal remains, to bring him back home and bury him. It was what he deserved.

They had lives to return to. People to visit, children to look after, a village to run; their day was jam-packed, and they'd taken the time out of it to visit Orochimaru. Given their status as soldiers on the winning side of the Battle of Amegakure, some might have said that he should've thanked them for coming. As it stood, however, the pleasure had been theirs. Deep within that base, over the next two and a half decades, a new World Tree would sprout and grow, allowing Naruto to reach across space and time to begin his eternal war against the gods who'd plagued his world...but that was for another day, and another time. Plenty of things would happen in the interim. A quarter-century, after all, was a long time...but in a world that would never again know the peril of war, now that the wheel of ages had rent itself in twain, it was little more than a drop in a chronology-filled bucket.

He had twenty-five years to plan for his conquest, and to enjoy the fruits of his labors in the meantime. For some unexplained reason, before they reached the age of thirty, each of the young adults who'd fought in _Tarmon Gai'don_ had ceased to physically progress beyond their peak. Even the members of older generations, like Mei, Yugito, and Oboro, seemed otherworldly with their unfading beauty.

When the day finally came, after the World Tree had grown enough to allow for a link between worlds, Naruto and his small army of allies stood before it. Shimmering in the light, radiating with every color of the rainbow, it was the definition of beauty; one by one, and yet all at once, they left their world behind with smiles on their faces. To the youngest iterations of Rei and Kouga, who had watched with some mixture of shock, awe, and dismay, they felt like they had been robbed of everything they'd ever known. And yet, pinned to Yggdrasil with a single tri-pronged kunai, was a note left by their father.

 ** _To Kouga and Rei,_**

 ** _I know that you're aware of how quiet I've been, every time you talk about your future, in this world I fought to build for you. You know how much I love you, even if_ _I haven't always been the best at showing it. Believe me, I've done my best to show it. When you find this, after your mother and I are gone, (and your older siblings, and all your aunts and uncles, even if they aren't related to you by blood,) I know you'll probably be hurt and confused, because you think that I'm not coming back. Don't worry about that! You think your mother would let me live if we never came to visit you? Think of this as...our vacation. A very long vacation. It wouldn't be a vacation if we didn't come back, though! I raised you both. I've watched you grow into adults that I'm proud to call my children. The time has come, though, for me to leave. I wanted to make a world without war, and a world without hate, so that you could grow up without having to follow down your parents' footsteps. That's the last thing we need from you two, no matter how good you'd be at it. I realized after we won, though...a world without war means a world without warriors. A world without me. This is my home, the only home I've known, and I'll never forget the wonderful life I have waiting for me when I come back. If you ever need me, use this kunai, and I'll come back as soon as I can. Live your lives, in the meantime! Enjoy everything this world has to offer! Don't forget, though...we love you!_**

 _ **See you soon,**_

 ** _Dad ( & Mom, even though she doesn't know I'm writing this.)_**

 ** _P.S.: Your mom left some lasagna in the fridge._**

 ** _P.P.S.: I may, or may not, have eaten some of it. Went to Ichiraku instead of finishing the rest of your food. Which reminds me, you'll need to yell at that old geezer Teuchi to retire. If it's up to him, he'll work himself to the bone, up until the second he dies. Don't let him do that. If I come back and find out you let him do that, you're grounded. I don't care how old you are._**

Helpless, the twins shared a look with one another, but matching smiles were on their faces as the same thought passed through their minds.

 _Yep._

Naruto had definitely written that.


End file.
